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Delivery of refractory radioactive ion beams via in-trap decay at ISOLDE

J. R. Reilly1,*, M. Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis2,3,†, M. Au1, L. Nies1, A. Ajayakumar1, M. Benhatchi4, J. Berbalk1,5, C. Bernerd1, K. Chrysalidis1 et al.

C. M. Fajardo Zambrano5, P. F. Giesel6, R. Heinke7, D. Lange8, G. Peng2, S. Rothe1, A. Schmidt1, C. Schweiger8, and J. Wessolek1

  • *Contact author: jordan.reilly@cern.ch
  • †Contact author: m.athkak@cern.ch
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Phys. Rev. C 114, 054311 – Published 9 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6m5s-pxyz

Abstract

An approach to deliver intense ion beams of refractory radioactive isotopes utilizing in-trap β− decay is demonstrated using the gas-filled ISCOOL ion trap at CERN-ISOLDE. Ion beams of Rb+97,98 and Sr+98 were injected into the ion trap, where they underwent β− decay and the daughter ions were successfully confined in the same trap. The produced singly charged ions were subsequently extracted and identified using the ISOLTRAP multireflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer, where the beam composition was analyzed as a function of trapping time. Modeling the observed time-dependent populations of the parent and daughter ions using the Bateman equations reproduces the isotopes' known half-lives, thereby confirming production via in-trap decay, achieving an overall efficiency for the singly charged daughter beams on the order of 1% relative to the parent intensity. Using this method, delivery of a singly charged atomic ion beam of Y+98 is thus reported for the first time at ISOLDE. These results demonstrate a practical and operationally simple method for delivering refractory isotopes at thick-target isotope-separation-on-line facilities, opening new opportunities for nuclear-structure studies of chemically challenging isotopes.

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Phys. Rev. C 114, 054311– Published 9 November, 2026
  • Received 30 April 2026
  • Accepted 27 August 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by CERN.

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