Mass Determination of Francium and Radium Isotopes by a Penning Trap Mass Spectrometer

Abstract A tandem Penning trap mass spectrometer is used for mass measurement of radioactive isotopes produced at the on-line isotope separator ISOLDE/CERN. The mass is determined directly and with high accuracy by measuring the cyclotron frequency of the stored ions. Measurements were performed on 209 210 211 212 221 222Fr and 226 230Ra. A resolving power of 5 × 105 was used and an accuracy of 1·8 × 10−7 has been achieved.