Development of an in-flight optical ConeTrap to measure fundamental nuclear properties in exotic super-asymmetric fission fragments

The project will use novel ion manipulation techniques (Paul traps, electrostatic traps and RF coolers) in conjunction with precision laser spectroscopy to measure fundamental nuclear properties in exotic super-asymmetric fission fragments (and atomic-nuclear processes in ultra-low lying nuclear excited states).
The project will be based in Manchester with on-line research conducted at the IGISOL facility, JYFL, Jyvaskyla, Finland and potentially at ISOLDE, CERN. The research will require the redesign of a recently constructed electrostatic ConeTrap and the use of this device, for the first time, to facilitate high efficiency laser spectroscopy. The developed system will then be exploited to make precision measurements of nuclear parameters via the hyperfine structure and isotope shift. In the new work the objective is to achieve spectroscopic efficiencies at an order of magnitude higher than that we have previously attained and commission apparatus capable of studying the most weakly produced and highest Z systems available at our on-line isotope separators.