Cooling of short-lived, radioactive, highly charged ions with the TITAN cooler Penning trap

Abstract

TITAN is an on-line facility dedicated to precision experiments with short-lived radioactive isotopes, in particular mass measurements. The achievable resolution on mass measurement, which depends on the excitation time, is limited by the half life of the radioactive ion. One way to bypass this is by increasing the charge state of the ion of interest. TITAN has the unique capability of chargebreeding radioactive ions using an electron-beam ion trap (EBIT) in combination with Penning trap mass spectrometry. However, the breeding process leads to an increase in energy spread, E, which in turn negatively influences the mass uncertainty. We report on the development of a cooler Penning trap which aims at reducing the energy spread of the highly charged ions prior to injection into the precision mass measurement trap. Electron and proton cooling will be tested as possible routes. Mass selective cooling techniques are also envisioned.

Penning-trap mass spectrometry of highly charged, neutron-rich Rb and Sr isotopes in the vicinity ofA≈100

“…The goal is to increase the precision of mass measurements with HCI and to compensate for negative effects due to the charge-breeding process (efficiency losses, energy spread, etc. ), and therefore a cooler Penning trap (CPET) will be commissioned [65][66][67] in the near future. Further extension of mass measurements in this region is planned.…”

Highly charged ions in Penning traps: A new tool for resolving low-lying isomeric states

“…The charge breeding process increases the ions' energy spread, which is estimated to be in the range of 10−100·q eV [41]. In order to cool the charge bred beam a cooler Penning s) µ Time of Flight ( 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 Counts (a.u) trap is currently being built and will use either electron or proton cooling to decrease the phase space of the highly charged ion bunch [42,43]. A full description of the TI-TAN EBIT can be found in Ref.…”

The on-line charge breeding program at TRIUMF's Ion Trap For Atomic and Nuclear Science for precision mass measurements

“…This cooler Penning trap (CPET) will be inserted into the beam line section before the MPET in the near future. 8,9 The TITAN-EBIT (Refs. 10 and 11) was built in a collaboration with the Max-Planck-Institute in Heidelberg, and it is designed for electron beam energies and currents of up to 70 keV and 500 mA (upgradeable to 5 A electrodes and the 6 T superconducting magnet are at cryogenic temperatures of ≈4 K.…”