Mass Measurements at SHIPTRAP
Abstract
The Penning trap facility SHIPTRAP at GSI Darmstadt was set up to perform high‐precision experiments on heavy elements produced in fusion‐evaporation reactions at SHIP. Up to now the masses of 52 radionuclides have been measured, 17 for the first time. In particular, the area of the rp‐process endpoint, close to 100Sn, was addressed. The relative mass uncertainties were between 10−7 and 5-10−8. Nuclides with half‐lives as short as 580 ms and calculated production cross sections as low as 20 μb have been measured. The main limitation for measurements of transuranium radionuclides is their low cross section. After improving the present efficiency of SHIPTRAP, elements with production cross sections down to 1 μb will be accessible. © 2007 American Institute of Physics