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Abstract

Penning traps open up unique experimental possibilities for mass spectrometry and spectroscopy of atomic ions with high precision. Two such experiments based on Penning traps are SHIPTRAP and ARTEMIS at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt.

The ARTEMIS experiment is designed to measure the magnetic moment (g-factor) of an electron in heavy, highly charged ions at the 10−9 level, by the means of laser-microwave double-resonance spectroscopy. Such measurements represent highly stringent tests of QED in extreme fields. The ion of choice for the demonstration and development of the experimental methods is 40Ar13+, which can be produced internally in the trap, for later measurements 209Bi82+ is foreseen. For each of the measurements, the preparation of a cleaned and cooled cloud of ions in the spectroscopy trap is necessary. In this work, the system is optimised for non-destructive detection and cooling of the ions, and production, transport, cooling, selection and storage of the Ar13+ ions are systematically demonstrated.

Precision mass measurements of the long-lived decay products of 225Ac and 223Ra are carried out at SHIPTRAP, using the phase-imaging ion-cyclotron-resonance technique. The masses of 221Fr, 219Rn, 213Bi, 211Pb, 209Pb, 207Tl and 207Pb are measured with a relative precision of 10−9, allowing an increase in the accuracy of other masses in this region. Some of these masses find direct input into the g-factor measurements, such as in the case of 209Bi, which is of interest to ARTEMIS. Furthermore, the doublet 205Tl / 205Pb, which is of great significance in nuclear astrophysics, is also linked to the measured masses.