Beta-decay spectroscopy of r-process nuclei around N = 126

Abstract

KEK Isotope Separation System (KISS) has been developed at RIKEN to study the β-decay properties of neutron-rich isotopes with neutron numbers around N = 126 to understand the astrophysical site of r-process. These nuclei will be produced by multi-nucleon transfer reactions in neutron-rich heavy ion collisions between 136Xe beam and 198Pt target. The KISS consists of an argon gas cell combined with a laser resonance ionization technique for atomic number selection, of an ISOL mass-separation system and of a detector system for the β-decay spectroscopy of nuclei around N = 126. The argon gas cell of KISS is a key component for thermalizing (stopping and neutralizing) and accumulating the unstable nuclei, and selectively ionizing them by using laser. We have performed off-and on-line experiments to study the basic properties of the gas cell as well as KISS. We successfully extracted the laser-ionized stable 198Pt atoms from the KISS at the commissioning on-line experiments. We furthermore extracted laser-ionized unstable 199Pt atoms and confirmed that the measured half-life was in good agreement with the reported value. Now KISS is ready for lifetime measurements of Pt, Ir, and Os isotopes around N = 126.