Exploring the Nuclear Chart via Precision Mass Spectrometry with the TITAN MR-TOF MS

Isotopes at the limits of nuclear existence are of great interest for their critical role in nuclear astrophysical reactions and their exotic structure. Experimentally, exotic nuclides are challenging to address due to their low production cross-sections, overwhelming amounts of contamination, and lifetimes of typically less than a second. To this end, a Multiple-Reflection Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer at the TITAN-TRIUMF facility was built to determine atomic masses. This device is the preferred tool to work with exotic nuclides due to its ability to resolve the species of interest from contamination and short measurement cycle times, enabling mass measurements of isotopes with millisecond half-lives. With a relative precision of the order 10−7, we demonstrate why the TITAN MR-TOF MS is the tool of choice for precision mass surveys for nuclear structure and astrophysics. The capabilities of the device are showcased in this work, including new mass measurements of short-lived tin isotopes (104–107Sn) approaching the proton dripline as well as 89Zr, 90Y, and 91Y. The last three illustrate how the broadband surveys of MR-TOF MS reach beyond the species of immediate interest.

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Publication Details

Journal
Atoms
Published
2025-01-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/atoms13010006
Primary Topic
Astronomical and nuclear sciences
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Exploring the Nuclear Chart via Precision Mass Spectrometry with the TITAN MR-TOF MS

J. Dilling, Andrew Jacobs, E. M. Lykiardopoulou, Fernando Maldonado Millán et al.
Atoms
Astronomical and nuclear sciences
article

Exploring the Nuclear Chart via Precision Mass Spectrometry with the TITAN MR-TOF MS

J. Dilling, Andrew Jacobs, E. M. Lykiardopoulou, Fernando Maldonado Millán, J. L. Tracy, D. Fusco, Ish Mukul, C. Scheidenberger, S. Malbrunot-Ettenauer, Sönke Beck, J. Bergmann, Y. Lan, A. A. Kwiatkowski, Jake Flowerdew, E. Leistenschneider, B. Kootte, T. Brunner, Ali Mollaebrahimi, W. R. Plaß, M. P. Reiter, T. Dickel, C. Izzo, S. F. Paul, E. Dunling, Leigh Graham, Annabelle Czihaly, Zach Hockenbery, Callum L. Brown
article en

Abstract

Isotopes at the limits of nuclear existence are of great interest for their critical role in nuclear astrophysical reactions and their exotic structure. Experimentally, exotic nuclides are challenging to address due to their low production cross-sections, overwhelming amounts of contamination, and lifetimes of typically less than a second. To this end, a Multiple-Reflection Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer at the TITAN-TRIUMF facility was built to determine atomic masses. This device is the preferred tool to work with exotic nuclides due to its ability to resolve the species of interest from contamination and short measurement cycle times, enabling mass measurements of isotopes with millisecond half-lives. With a relative precision of the order 10−7, we demonstrate why the TITAN MR-TOF MS is the tool of choice for precision mass surveys for nuclear structure and astrophysics. The capabilities of the device are showcased in this work, including new mass measurements of short-lived tin isotopes (104–107Sn) approaching the proton dripline as well as 89Zr, 90Y, and 91Y. The last three illustrate how the broadband surveys of MR-TOF MS reach beyond the species of immediate interest.

AtomsVol. 13(1)
TRIUMF (CA), University of British Columbia (CA), University of Waterloo (CA), University of Calgary (CA), GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (DE), Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE), University of Victoria (CA), Heidelberg University (DE), Edinburgh College (GB), Institut für Hochschulforschung (DE), University of Manitoba (CA), McGill University (CA), European Organization for Nuclear Research (CH), University of Edinburgh (GB)
Justus Liebig Universität Gießen, TRIUMF, Helmholtz Graduate School for Hadron and Ion Research, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Openalex Percentile: Top 100%
Astronomical and nuclear sciences
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