A multi-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrograph for short-lived and super-heavy nuclei

A multi-reflection time-of-flight (MRTOF) mass spectrograph has been implemented at RIKEN to provide high-precision mass measurements of very short-lived nuclei. Of particular interest are mass measurements of r-process nuclei and trans-uranium nuclei. In such nuclei, the MRTOF can perform on par with or better than traditional Penning trap systems. We demonstrate that the MRTOF-MS is capable of accurately attaining relative mass precision of delta m/m < 10(-7) and describe it's utility with heavy, short-lived nuclei. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.