First coupling of the FRS particle identification and the FRS-Ion Catcher data acquisition systems: The case of 109In

Abstract

For the first time, the FRagment Separator (FRS) and the Multiple-Reflection Time-Of-Flight Mass-Spectrometer (MR-TOF-MS) particle identification (PID) systems at GSI have been coupled. This new approach adds to the standard FRS PID an additional unambiguous identification of the fragments and the possibility to identify and count long-lived isomeric states (>ms). For this purpose, single-event timestamp information given by a common clock was used to correlate both systems. Two methods were implemented to improve the signal-to-background ratio by more than a factor 2 in the high resolution mass spectrum obtained with the MR-TOF-MS for the 109In isotope. Moreover, the coupling of the systems allows an improvement in the on-line monitoring of the FRS-Ion Catcher (IC) efficiency and extraction time. In addition, range calculations were implemented in the on-line monitoring; a powerful tool for real-time optimization of stopped beam experiments.