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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Preparation of targets by electrodeposition for heavy element studies

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Abstract For heavy element studies at GSI, lanthanide and actinide targets have been prepared by molecular plating. The deposition occurs from an isopropanolic solution at 1000–1200 V with current densities of a few mA/cm 2 . Several lanthanide targets have been prepared for test experiments. With nat Gd deposited on a 10 μm thick Be backing foil a target density of 1100 μg/cm 2 could be achieved. Gd-targets were used for the production of α-emitting isotopes of Os, the homologue of hassium (Hs; Z =108), in order to develop a chemical separation procedure for Hs. 248 Cm targets with densities up to 730 μg/cm 2 have been produced for recent experiments to investigate the chemical behaviour of Hs. Here, a rotating wheel system with a multi-target device has been applied enabling higher beam intensities, compared to a stationary target. The targets were irradiated with a pulsed 26 Mg 5+ beam applying beam currents up to 6.6 μA electr . An α-spectroscopic investigation of the irradiated Cm-targets showed that the Cm-material is not evenly distributed over the entire target area. Very often, for heavy element investigations, chemical separation procedures are required to ensure high purity of the deposited actinide materials.