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RESEARCH PRODUCT

A rotating wheel system for the detection of spontaneously fissioning nuclides from heavy ion reactions

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Abstract A rotating wheel system for the detection of spontaneously fissioning reaction products from heavy ion reactions was developed. In this system products recoiling from a rotating target wheel are stopped in a catcher foil stack which can be rotated at various velocities up to 80 rotations per second. All products emitted within a wide emission cone are stopped in the catcher foils and are rotated into shielded positions with stationary fission-track detectors positioned on both sides of each rotating foil. This technique allows a sensitive detection of spontaneously fissioning nuclides over a broad range of half-lives from 1 ms to about 1 d. By post-bombardment exposure of the catchers to new fission-track detectors, the half-lives covered can be extended to about 1 y. From their range and angular distributions within the catcher foils, heavy-ion fusion products can be distinguished from nuclides produced in damped collisions, and excitation functions can be extracted.