Ion-extraction from the CISe gas catcher

Exotic nuclei produced in nuclear fission or nuclear transfer reactions are of wide interest for nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics. To prepare these energetic ions for precision mass measurements, gas catchers are frequently used to slow them down and thermalize them. A new gas catcher is built to be used in the CISe setup [1] as well as in the NEXT experiment [2]. The working principle of the gas catcher and report on recent efficiency studies is explained. A 223Ra source was used to investigate ion guidance and ion extraction from the gas cell. Through alpha spectroscopy, it was shown that the daughter isotope 219Rn, with a half-life of 3.96 s, was successfully extracted from the gas-catcher. The ion-extraction was optimized by adjusting the electrode voltages and pressure inside the gas catcher.
References [1] A. Mollaebrahimi et al., “A setup to develop novel Chemical Isobaric SEparation (CISE),” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, vol. 463, pp. 508–511, Jan. 2020, issn: 0168-583X. doi: 10.1016/J.NIMB.2019.03.018. [2] J. Even et al., “The NEXT Project: Towards Production and Investigation of Neutron-Rich Heavy Nuclides,” Atoms, vol. 10, no. 2, Jun. 2022, issn: 22182004. doi: 10.3390/ATOMS10020059.