Evgeny E. Tereshatov, M. F. Volia, J. Krier, A. Hübner, Petra Thörle-Pospiech, Bettina Lommel, J. Khuyagbaatar, L. Lens, Ch. Mokry, Alexander Yakushev, Kevin J. Glennon, Egon Jäger, V. Yakusheva, Birgit Kindler, S. Raeder, S. Götz, Michael Block, A. K. Mistry, Ch. E. Düllmann, O. Kaleja, M. Götz, A. Såmark-Roth, Charles M. Folden, and J. Runke
A novel combination of advanced gas-chromatography and detection systems coupled to a buffer-gas cell was characterized on-line to allow gas-phase chemical studies of accelerator-produced short-lived α -decaying mercury, francium, and astatine isotopes. These were produced in 40Ar- and 48Ca-induced nuclear fusion–evaporation reactions, subsequently isolated in the recoil separators MARS at Texas A&M University, USA, and TASCA at GSI Darmstadt, Germany, before being thermalized in a buffer-gas-stopping cell. From the latter, the nuclear reaction products were extracted into gas-phase chromatographic systems, suitable for registering α -decaying short-lived radionuclides, such as isotopes of superheavy elements. Efficiencies of 21(3)% for 204-209Fr were reached for the extraction into the optimized miniCOMPACT gas-chromatography setup, indicating that this technique enables the identification of isotopes of volatile as well as non-volatile elements. These studies guide the path towards chemical investigations of superheavy elements beyond flerovium, which are out of reach with currently used setups.