In-source and in-trap formation of molecular ions in the actinide mass range at CERN-ISOLDE

Abstract

The use of radioactive molecules for fundamental physics research is a developing interdisciplinary field limited dominantly by their scarce availability. In this work, radioactive molecular ion beams containing actinide nuclei extracted from uranium carbide targets are produced via the Isotope Separation On-Line technique at the CERN-ISOLDE facility. Two methods of molecular beam production are studied: extraction of molecular ion beams from the ion source, and formation of molecular ions from the mass-separated ion beam in a gas-filled radio-frequency quadrupole ion trap. Ion currents of U${}^{+}$, UO${}_{1-3}^{+}$, UC${}_{1-3}^{+}$, UF${}_{1-4}^{+}$, UF${}_{1,2}$O${}_{1,2}^{+}$ are reported. Metastable tantalum and uranium fluoride molecular ions are identified. Formation of UO${}_{1-3}^{+}$, U(OH)${}_{1-3}^{+}$, UC${}_{1-3}^{+}$, UF${}_{1,2}$O${}_{1,2}^{+}$ from mass-separated beams of U${}^{+}$, UF${}_{1,2}^{+}$ with residual gas is observed in the ion trap. The effect of trapping time on molecular formation is presented.

6 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Opportunities for Fundamental Physics Research with Radioactive Molecules

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Ab initio study of electronic states and radiative properties of the AcF molecule
• Laser spectroscopy and CP-violation sensitivity of actinium monofluoride
• Ionization potential of radium monofluoride
• Laser fluence-dependent production of molecular thorium ions in different charge states for trapped-ion experiments