Synthesis of superheavy elements at the Dubna gas-filled recoil separator

A survey of experiments at the Dubna gas-filled recoil separator (Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, JINR, Dubna) aimed at the detection and study of the “island of stability” of superheavy nuclei produced in complete fusion reactions of ⁴⁸Са ions and ²³⁸U–²⁴⁹Cf target nuclei is given. The problems of synthesis of superheavy nuclei, methods for their identification, and investigation of their decay properties, including the results of recent experiments at other separators (SHIP, BGS, TASCA) and chemical setups, are discussed. The studied properties of the new nuclei, the isotopes of elements 112–118, as well as the properties of their decay products, indicate substantial growth of stability of the heaviest nuclei with increasing number of neutrons in the nucleus as the magic number of neutrons N = 184 is approached.     

The dubna gas-filled recoil separator: Software and algorithms

Experiments carried out on the gas-filled separator of recoil nuclei at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, in the past several years have proved the hypothesis of the existence of a stability island of superheavy nuclei. The accelerator, beam diagnostics, and detector technologies underlay the success. It is the highly sensitive detecting system of the separator combined with the method of “active correlations” that allowed rare events of the decay of superheavy nuclei to be reliably detected under almost background-free conditions. In turn, to a large extent, this has been made possible owing to special algorithms and software developed for long-term experiments in the beam of ⁴⁸Ca ions.     

Isomeric decay studies using a recoil mass separator

Microsecond isomers in the exotic proton-richN=82, 83 nuclei¹⁵³Yb,¹⁵³Lu,¹⁵⁴Lu and¹⁵⁴Hf have been identified byγ-ray spectroscopy following mass analysis of¹⁰²Pd+245 MeV⁵⁴Fe reaction products using the Daresbury Recoil Separator. The decays of the isomers, interpreted asπh ₁₁ ^2/n andπh ₁₁ ^2/n vf_7/2 states, are characterized. The reduced E2 transition rates indicate that half-filling of theπh_11/2 subshell occurs just belowZ=71, and results for theN=83 odd-odd isotones are also consistent with this finding.     

Startup of superheavy element chemistry at RIKEN

A review is given on the startup of the superheavy element (SHE) chemistry at RIKEN. A gas-jet transport system for the SHE chemistry has been coupled to the gas-filled recoil ion separator GARIS at the RIKEN Linear Accelerator. The performance of the system was appraised using ²⁰⁶Fr and ²⁴⁵Fm produced in the ¹⁶⁹Tm (⁴⁰Ar, 3n) ²⁰⁶Fr and ²⁰⁸Pb (⁴⁰Ar, 3n) ²⁴⁵Fm reactions, respectively. The α particles of ²⁰⁶Fr and ²⁴⁵Fm separated with GARIS and transported by the gas-jet were identified with a rotating wheel system for α spectrometry under desired low background condition. The high gas-jet efficiencies over 80% were independent of the beam intensities up to 2 particle μA. A gas-jet coupled target system for the production of SHEs was also installed on the beam line of the RIKEN K70 AVF cyclotron. The gas-jet transport of ²⁵⁵No and ²⁶¹Rf produced in the ²³⁸U (²²Ne, 5n) ²⁵⁵No and ²⁴⁸Cm (¹⁸O, 5n) ²⁶¹Rf reactions, respectively, was conducted for the future chemical studies of ²⁶⁵Sg via the ²⁴⁸Cm (²²Ne, 5n) ²⁶⁵Sg reaction.     

Surface muon production in medium energy heavy ion reaction at RIKEN

A new type of beam transport system for secondary light charged particles (“Large Ω” Beam Course) has been constructed and used to transport surface muons from the decay of pions produced in heavy-ion reactions at RIKEN Ring Cyclotron (RRC). In an experiment carried out using a¹⁴N beam of 135 MeV/u and a carbon target of 0.9 g/cm² thickness, the surface muon intensity obtained in 5×5 cm² sample was around 100 1/s for 500 nA of the primary beam. This number may be increased by two orders if the energy were doubled.     

Gamma-ray spectroscopy of short-lived fission products using the recoil separator “Lohengrin”

γ-spectra and half-lives of⁹⁰Br,⁹⁵Rb,⁹⁶Rb,⁹⁶Sr,⁹⁶Y,¹³²Sb and¹³²Sn have been measured using the unslowed fission fragment separator “Lohengrin”. Preliminary decay schemes for⁹⁰Kr,⁹⁵Sr,⁹⁶Sr and⁹⁶Y are given.     

Design and commissioning of a timestamp-based data acquisition system for the DRAGON recoil mass separator

The fission fragment mass distribution followed by neutron emission is studied for the ²³⁸U(¹⁸O,f) reaction using the asymmetric two-center shell model. Within the thermodynamic approach, excitation energy carried by the compound nucleus is dissipated in the emission of a pair of neutrons in several consecutive steps. Therefore, we have considered 2–12 (in step of 2) neutron emission channels in our formalism. The mass distribution corresponding to 8-neutron emission channel compares reasonably well with the experimental data. The observed fine structure dips corresponding to shell closure (Z = 50 and N = 82 of individual fission fragment arise mainly due to shell structure in the mass parameters. However, an exact location and magnitude of the dip at A = 124 in the mass distribution depends on how the temperature modifies masses and, also, on the precise information of pre- and post-neutron emission data. This suggests a possible importance of extending these calculations to get new insight into an understanding of the dynamical behaviour of fragment formation in the fission process.     

Second experiment at VASSILISSA separator on the synthesis of the element 112

The upgraded separator VASSILISSA was used to confirm results of previous experiments on the synthesis of the heavy isotopes of the element 112 obtained in complete-fusion reactions of ⁴⁸Ca and ²³⁸U. An additional reason was the non-observation of any events in the same reaction studied with the BGS separator at Berkeley. Limits of for the atomic mass number of the observed spontaneously fissioning isotope were measured. The obtained results on the decay mode, half-life and production cross-section are in agreement with those obtained in our first experiment.Received: 10 June 2003, Revised: 29 July 2003, Published online: 2 December 2003PACS: 23.60. + e decay - 25.70.-z Low and intermediate energy heavy-ion reactions - 25.85.Ca Spontaneous fission - 27.90. + b      

Picosecond pulses compression at 1053-nm center wavelength by using a gas-filled hollow-core fiber compressor

We theoretically study the nonlinear compression of picosecond pulses with 10-m J of input energy at the 1053-nm center wavelength by using a one-meter-long gas-filled hollow-core fiber(HCF)compressor and considering the third-order dispersion(TOD)effect.It is found that when the input pulse is about 1 ps/10 m J,it can be compressed down to less than20 fs with a high transmission efficiency.The gas for optimal compression is krypton gas which is filled in a HCF with a 400-μm inner diameter.When the input pulse duration is increased to 5 ps,it can also be compressed down to less than 100 fs efficiently under proper conditions.The results show that the TOD effect has little impact on picosecond pulse compression and the HCF compressor can be applied on compressing picosecond pulses efficiently with a high compression ratio,which will benefit the research of high-field laser physics.     

Generation of 11 fs pulses by using hollow-core gas-filled fibers at a 100 kHz repetition rate

Using self-phase modulation in a hollow-core fiber filled with xenon, we were able to produce 2.3 microJ laser pulses with a duration of 10.9 fs at a repetition rate of up to 100 kHz. We started with 45 fs, 4.4 microJ, 800 nm pulses generated by a Coherent RegA Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier system, then spectrally broadened the 30 nm bandwidth to more than 100 nm. Dispersion compensation was achieved with two pairs of chirped mirrors. This is believed to be the first time this type of compression was achieved at a repetition rate as high as 100 kHz. This brings the advantages of few-cycle laser pulses to experiments that require high-repetition-rate, low-energy laser systems, for example, coincidence experiments.     

GABRIELA setup for nuclear spectroscopy of the transfermium element isotopes at the VASSILISSA separator

The JINR (Dubna)-IN2P3 (France) Collaboration project aimed at the α, β γ, spectroscopy of the transfermium element isotopes using heavy-ion beams of the U-400 cyclotron and the modernized recoil separator VASSILISSA was launched at Dubna. During the first full-scale experiment in September–October 2004, nobelium and lawrencium isotopes produced in the ⁴⁸Ca + ^207,208Pb → ^255,256No* and ⁴⁸Ca + ²⁰⁹Bi → ²⁵⁷Lr* reactions were studied. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Measurements ofβ-endpoint-energies using a magnetic electron separator

Beta endpoint energies of the short-lived neutron rich fission products^{90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98},Rb have been measured using a newly constructed achromatic magnetic electron-separator that eliminates low energy electrons. Thus only electrons in the neighbourhood of theβ-endpoint are recorded in a low background environment.     

Heavy element research at FLNR (Dubna)

The setting of the experiments is described and the results obtained on the synthesis of the heaviest nuclides in reactions induced by ⁴⁸Ca projectiles are presented. The decay properties of the new nuclei confirm the theoretical predictions about the new nuclear shells and the “islands of stability” of superheavy elements. Briefly, also the results of the first experiments aimed to study the atomic and chemical properties of element 112 are reported.     

放射性次级束流分离器的分离性能

放射性次级束流分离器(HFRS)是强流重离子加速器装置(HIAF)上开展放射性次级物理研究的重要装置。HFRS是飞行时间型(PF)碎片分离器,具有大磁刚度、大接受度、大孔径磁铁以及高动量分辨的特点。HFRS采用B-E-B方法纯化弹核碎裂或裂变反应产生的放射性核素,是开展高精度储存环内实验及环外实验研究的重要工具。主要介绍HFRS分离纯化奇异核的能力,采用MOCADI程序模拟单降能器与双降能器下典型弹核碎裂反应和裂变反应中粒子的鉴别和纯化。模拟结果表明:HFRS具有很好的消色散和聚焦特性,对于弹核碎裂反应中轻核的分离采用单降能器系统即可得到很好的纯化效果;而弹核碎裂反应中重核的分离则需采用双降能器系统才可得到很好的纯化效果;对于裂变反应,由于裂变反应的能散较大,则在采用双降能器系统时也仅仅能得到一定的纯化效果。