New measurements of the masses of the isotopes⁸,⁹,¹¹Li were made using recently commissioned TITAN Penning trap mass spectrometer at TRIUMF. The measurement of the halo nucleus ¹¹Li represents a new standard in Penning trap mass spectrometry, as it is the shortest lived, t₁/₂ = 8.8 ms, isotope ever weighed using this technique. Low energy, E = 20 keV, beams of these radioactive isotopes were produced using the ISAC facility. These were subsequentlycooled and bunched using a square-wave-driven Radio-
Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) ion guide, which was filled with hydrogen
gas. The cooled ion bunches were then passed into a Penning trap where
the mass measurements were made.
A description of the RFQ in the ISAC hall is given along with some
results from the commissioning of the device. A new set of harmonic deceleration
optics is presented which have been successfully used to inject ions
into the RFQ. Cooling of lithium ions with high DC efficiencies of 20%, in
helium, and 40%, in hydrogen, are shown. Extraction of extremely short
ion bunches, 30 ns FWHM, is also demonstrated. Storage times for stable
lithium ions in helium and hydrogen were investigated. It was found that
lithium ions could be cooled in hydrogen for up to 30 ms without significant
losses whereas cooling in helium lead to exponential losses with a half-life of
5.7(1)ms. The TITAN Penning trap is described and the ⁸,⁹,¹¹Li data presented.
Final values for the mass excess of ∆(⁸Li) = 20945.70(38) keV, ∆(⁹Li) =
24954.80(60) keV and ∆(¹¹Li) = 40728.1(12) keV are obtained. The ⁹,¹¹Li
results are then used to obtain a new value for two neutron separation energy
of ¹¹Li, S₂n = 369.3(1.3) keV. This agrees with the recent measurement from
the MISTRAL spectrometer, 376(5) keV, at the two sigma level, but shows
over three standard deviations from the most recent atomic mass evaluation,
300(20) keV
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/734 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Smith, Mathew Jonathon |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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