Microscopic and spectroscopic analysis of ion-irradiated molecular-plated thin films for superheavy element production
The heaviest known elements are produced via fusion reactions by bombarding actinide targets with intense heavy ion beams. The production of actinide targets relies mainly on the molecular plating (MP) technique. Long-term stability of MP produced targets is typically achieved by a conditioning procedure, in which fresh targets are exposed to successively increasing beam intensities. This leads to non-trivial physical and chemical transformations, which are presently poorly understood. To shed light on processes in the initial irradiation stage, we irradiated thin Tm MP films with Cl and Au ions of different fluences, with the latter ranging from 10 10 ions cm 2 to 10 14 ions cm 2 , and analyzed their morphology and composition by a variety of microscopic, spectroscopic and ion beam techniques. The study was conducted on lanthanide targets, which serve as non-radioactive analogues for heavy actinide targets. Combining the results of several methods, we conclude that the MP thin films consist of a mixture of carbonates and formates. Under irradiation, these films transform into amorphous oxides with embedded carbon clusters.
Authors
- Markus Bender
- Alice Seibert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9650-6396)
- Frans Munnik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2506-6869)
- M. Rapps
- T. Gouder
- N. Trautmann
- C. Trautmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7058-6340)
- Joachim Broetz
- S Herz
- Ch. E. Düllmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1194-0423)
- C.-C. Meyer
- B. Kindler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4778-4159)
- Dennis Renisch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8561-0016)
- Olaf Walter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2679-1715)
- B. Lommel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3920-8314)
- Elke Jäger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6734-986X)
- M. Major (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6074-6144)
- Ernst Artes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2457-022X)
- C. Mokry
- J. Runke
- Α. B. Yakushev
Institutions
- GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (DE)
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (DE)
- Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE)
- Helmholtz Institute Mainz (DE)
- Joint Research Centre (DE)
- RheinMain University of Applied Sciences (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment
- Published
- 2025-03-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2025.170361
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Ion-surface interactions and analysis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.67