Paul trapping of radioactive 6He+ ions and direct observation of their beta decay.
We demonstrate that abundant quantities of short-lived beta unstable ions can be trapped in a novel transparent Paul trap and that their decay products can directly be detected in coincidence. Low energy 6He+ (807 ms half-life) ions were extracted from the SPIRAL source at GANIL, then decelerated, cooled, and bunched by means of the buffer gas cooling technique. More than 10(8) ions have been stored over a measuring period of six days, and about 10(5) decay coincidences between the beta particles and the 6Li++ recoiling ions have been recorded. The technique can be extended to other short-lived species, opening new possibilities for trap assisted decay experiments.
Fléchard
X
X
LPC-Caen, ENSICAEN, Université de Caen, CNRS/IN2P3-ENSI, Caen, France.
Liénard
E
E
Méry
A
A
Rodríguez
D
D
Ban
G
G
Durand
D
D
Duval
F
F
Herbane
M
M
Labalme
M
M
Mauger
F
F
Naviliat-Cuncic
O
O
Thomas
J C
JC
Velten
Ph
P