Submitted to Zeitschrift für Physik A,

Novernber 14, 1994

Short Note
269
Production and Decay of 110

S. Hofmann, V. Nlnov, F.P. Heüberger, P. Armbruster, H. Folger, G. Münzenberg, H.J. Schéitt

Gcscllschaft für Schwcrioncnforvchung, D-<i..J220 Darrnstadt, Gcrrnanv
A.G. Popeko, A.V. Yerernin, A.N. Andreyev
Flcrov I.aboratory ofXuclcar Rcacuons, J l : ' \ R , I . . J I 980 Dubna, Ruvsia
S. Saro, R. .Janik
Dcpartrncnt of :'\uclcar Phvsrcs. Corncmus l mvcrvrtv, SK-8-12 L� Hrauslava. Slovakia
1\1. Leino
Dcpartrncnt of Phyvics. l nrvcrvitv of .l vva ,k\ la. S 1·--111100 Jvva sk vl.i. lmland

l':\CS: 2 L 1 O. Dr: 23.60 . + e: 25. 70.-1: 2� 90 . -r- b

Abstract: I n an cxpcrimcnt carncd out to idcntiíy clcmcnt 11 0 , A l t h o u g h thc production cr oss-vcctions for hcavy clcmcnt s ap-
wc havc obscrvcd an o-dccay chain, that can be unam biguously proach the lim its of experimental scnsitivity, thc ha ll-Iivcs for most
assigncd to 269 110. In a series of prccxpcriments thc cxcitation nuclci that can he produccd with stablc projcculcs and thc avail-
functions of thc fusion rcactions 51lTi + 20Mpb_zsx104• and
ahlc targcts are prcdictcd to be longcr than 1 µs l.'i- 71. Thcse half-
5BFc+ 208Pb-Z66(08* wcrc mcasurcd with high precision in order
to gct thc optimum projcctilc cnergics for thc pro<luction of these lives are casily acccssiblc in expcrimcnts with rccoil scparators,
hcavy clcmcnts. Thc cross-scction maxima of the I n evaporation For thc odd-ncutron nucleus 2 6 9 1 1 0 an a half-lifc of " " 1 0 0 us is
channcls wcrc obscrvcd at excitation energies of 15. 6 McV and
cstirnatcd from thc Q, valucs prcdictcd. The lisvion half-lifc should
1 3 . 4 McV, rcspcctivcly. Thcsc <lata rcsult in an optimum cxcitation
cncrgy of 1 2 . 3 Me V of thc compoun<l nuclcus for thc production he considcrably longer following thc calculatcd hulf-livcs for thc
º
of269 I IO in thc rcaction 62Ni + 2 8 Pb-269 I I O + 1 n. 1 n irradiations cvcn-evcn ncighhours and taking into account an odd ncutron
at the corrcsponding bcam cncrgy of 3 1 1 Me V we havc obscrved hindrancc factor. Thc isotope 2 6 9 110 should he an cr. cmittcr with
a dccay chain of 4 subscqucnt e, dccays. This can be assigned to
a ncgligiblc lission hranching.
thc isotope with the mass numbcr 269 of the elcmcnt 1 1 0 on the
basis of dclaycd c,-a coincidenccs. Thc accuratcly measurcd decay
data of the daughter isotopcs of thc clcments 1 08 to 102, obtained Experimental Method
in thc prcvious cxpcrimcnts, were used. The isotopc 2 6 9 1 1 O decays
with a half-lifc of (270� 1;iT.:) µs by cmission of ( 1 1 . 1 3 2 ± 0.020) I Icavy ion bcams of 5
ºTi, 58
Fc and <, 2:-s;i wcrc accclcratcd by thc
Me V alpha particlcs. Thc pro<luction cross-scction IS ( 3 . 3 � n ) pb. L ' . \ : I L A C to cncrgics suflicicnt Ior rcacticns at thc Coulomb
bar- Thc hcams wcre produccd from enrichcd material. lor
ricr. 50Ti

the Pf G ion sourcc was used. Thc pr ojcctilc icns 5 MFc and 62N i
Introduction
wcrc obtaincd from an ECR sourcc and accclcrated to 1 . 4 x A
During thc first dccade ofexperiments with S I I I I ' at thc L : ' \ I L A C ,
McV hy an RFQ, l l l linac. I n both cases, thc final kinctic cncrgies
thc ncw clemcnts 107, 108 and 109 werc <liscovcred 1 1 1 . Thc au­
werc ohtaincd hy thc Alvarez section plus si;gle resonators oí thc
thors proposc<l to namc thcsc clcmcnts niclsboh nur n ( '- s ), ha ssium
L:'\11.AC. Thc rclative accuracy of the beam cncrgies was
( 1 1 s), an<l mcitnerium ( \.1 t). Thc elcmcnts werc idcntificd from ± 0 .003, 1\ \ 1 c V , thc absolutc cnergics are accuratc to ± 0 .0 1 x A
only a small numhcr of dccaying atoms produccd with cro ss-scc­
Me V.
tions of 1 67 ph, 19 ph and 10 pb, rcspcctivcly Thc high scnsitivi t y ¡\\erage part1clc currcnts of 3 x 1 1 1 1 2 · , were u,cd. Thc con-
achicvcd in thc cxpcriments resultcd from thc following: a) a sta­
su rnpt ion oí material in the LC R sourcc, rnctallic iron and nickcl
ble, high currcnt hcam from thc L ' - 1 1 . : \ C ; b ) a highly eílicicnt
heated to "" 1 8 0 0 K in an i\1 2 0 1 ove n, was less than 4.0 mg/h. Thc
scparation of the rcaction products by thc SI 1 1 1 ' vclocity liltcr 1 2 1; time ,tructure 01 the heam wa, dctermincd hy a .i' . .'i m, widc pulse
e) a scnsitive detector system with thc fcasihility to correlato im­ followed hy a 1 -1 . .'i rn, wide hcam pause.
plantcd rcaction products with thcir subsc quc nt radroactrvc dccay The targets werc produced hy cvaporatlon o l a -1.�0 µg,'cm 2 lead
chains 1 3 1 . !ayer onto a 40 µg ·cm2 carhon hacking. Thc 211"1'h was cnrichcd
Cross-scction estima tes Ior thc still hca vicr clcrncnts 1 1 O and to '!9.0 "".,, hna l l y, a thin !ayer of 8 µg;crn 2 carhon was evaporatcd
1 1 1 using lcad or bismuth bascd rcactions with pr ojcctilcs of the onto the lcad [81, Light targcts wcrc rnountcd on a whecl of 3 1 0
T, = 3 series, rcsult in valucs of ahout I pb, Bcarn times of severa! mm diamete r. The whecl rotatcd wi th 1 1 2 .5 rcv .. mm synchro­
months would havc bccn ncccvsary to carry ou t cxpcnrncnts on nousl} to thc hcam macrostructurc.
this low cross-scction lcvcl with thc experimental sct-up uscd so ·1 he produced cvaporc1ti on rcsiducs wcre ,cparated in-ílight hy
far. Thcrcforc, considcrahlc cflort s wcrc madc to Iurthcr irnprovc thc ve locitv filtcr SI 1 1 1 ' . Comparcd to thc prcv1ous expcriments,
thc alrcady high scnsitivity, so that I ph cxpcruncnt s can he carricd thc distance hctwcen target and scparator was reduced in order to
out routincly 141. merca ,e the so lid a nglc. A valuc of 4 rmr was rcachcd, rcsulting in
2

a calculatcd transmission cocfficicnt ar 0.4 far thc mvcsugatcd lu-
sien products. Thc background supprcssion was srgnificantly im­
preved by an additional dipolc magnct allowing to posuion thc
dctcctors at an anglc of 7º out of thc primary hcam Jircction.
Scattcred low energy projcctilcs werc thc main contribution to thc
background. Thc average ratc in thc stop detector wa s JO 1 1 1 . Thc
magnetic ficlJ strcngth of the dipolo magnet in thc "/. = 1 1 0 cxpcr-
irncnt was set according to thc valucs obtamcd in ihc prcvious ex-
periments far invcstigation of Z > 104 and "/. = !O H .
I n front of thc silicon detectors and Jcgradcr stack thcrc are
two sccondary-clcctron foil dctcctors mountcd 28.'i mm apart from
cach other. The foils are madc of carhon of 30 µg/cm 2 thick ncss.
Two foils per detector are ncccssary. Thc detector signals are uscd
to dis t i ng ui s h irnp la ruat io ns frorn radioactivo dccays of prcviously
irnplantcd nuclci. Bccause of the high cfficicncy of thcse dctectors
(;;:,.99 % ) vcry clcan dccay spcctra are obraincd, anJ thc time win-
dows Ior mc as uri ng dccay chains are <ignificantly prolongatcd.
The time rcsolution of thc foil detector, is about 700 rs which is
srnall cnough to ohtain togcthcr with the cncrgy signals from the
silicon detector a rough mass a ss i g nment for thc implanted io n s.

Results
Excitation functions of the reaction 5o Ti+ 2oM Ph-z�• J 04•. Thc
formation o f clcmcnt 104 i s oto p e s was studicd w i th in a wide pro-
jcctilc cnergy rangc ar (4 . 5 2 - 5. IO) x A .\1eV. Thc mcasurcd
cros s- sections are plottcd as function or the excitation cnergy in
Fus,on Fig. 2a. Thc error hars are the statistical errors only. The ahsolutc
Products
cross - sec tion valucs are accuratc within a factor oí two hccause
of systcmatic unccrtaintics. l lcre, and in thc following, thc cxci-
/--
tation cnergies wcre calculatcd far reactions at hcam encrgics in
SO 100 ISO 200 250 thc middle or thc targct. Thc known masscs or projcctilcs and
rrrn
targets and thc prcdicted mas ses or the compound nuclei wcre u sed
[9, 10 [ .
Fig, l. :-.:ew assembly of detectors far idcntification of hcavy ele-
mcnts.

15000
Thc detector systcm is composcd of two timc-of-Ilight dctcctors, al
sevcn idcntical 16-strip silicon wafcrs, plus thrce germanium de- 2=104
10000
tcctors. A thrce dimensional vicw ar the detector arrangcmcnt is
shown in Fig. 1 , together with a scctional dra wing to sea le. 1n
...a,
.g_ 5000
front of thc silicon detectors thcrc is a changcr far calibration
....... 3n
sources and dcgradcr foils (My l a r ) . I n thc "/. = 104 cxpcrimcnt the
e o
foils wcrc varicd hctwccn 3.5 µm and 7 . 5 µm, in ali othcr cxper-
o 100
+
i
imcnts a 3 . 5 µm foil was uscd.
u b)
G)
CII
1
80 2=108
Thc active arca ar one of thc silicon strip detectors i s 3.'i x 80 CII
I
C 80
rrun2. Each strip is position sensitivo in the vertical dircction with
u
...
o
40
a rcsolution of 150 µm bctwccn n dccays or a dccay c hain. lor that
rcason thc stop detector is equivalen! to 371K) single dctcct or s of 20

0 . 1 5 x 5 mm 2, but of 1 00 % active arca. Thc optimum cncrgv re- o

o 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
solution is 1 4 kcV far n"s of a 241 /\m so urce. S1x wafcrs are
E• I MeV !in the midd.e of the target>
mountcd in thc backward hcrmsphcrc Iacing thc <top detector.
Thcy mcasurc cscaping n s or üssron lragrncnts with a salid anglc
Fig. 2. \teasurcd ex..:itation functions lor production or elcmcnts
of 80 % of 21r. I n case ar thc hackward detector, ncighbouring
J 04 and J 08 in rusion-evaporation rcactions with 2""1'h targcts.
strips are conncctcd galvanicly so that 28 cncrgy scnvitivc scgmcnts The Jines are gaussian curves littcd to thc Jata p o i nt s . Thc arrows
are formed. The dircction of thc cscapmg o: particlc or üssion mark the cxcitation cncrgics at thc Bass harrier [ 1 1 [.
fragmcnt can he rctraccd roughly. Thc cncrgy rc sol uti o n obtaincd
by summing thc cncrgy loss signa! trom thc sto p dete ctor and thc Cr o"- ,c c tio n maxima wcrc ohtaincd at cxcitation cncrgies or
residual cncrgy írom thc backward detector is 40 k cV Cor � parti­ ( J S . 6 ± o. J ) \1cY and ( 2 1 . 5 ± 0 .1) \1eY far the I n and 2n channcls,
eles, Ali silicon dctcct ors are moled to �<,:1 K . The gcrmanium rc,pccti,·cJy: rhc widths I FWI 1 \ 1 ) of" the e xc it at ion functions are

dctcctors mcasure X-rays or gamma, in cornculcncc with signals 4 . 3 \kV and <d \1cV . Thcsc Jata wcrc ohtaincd rrom thc analy-

from the silicon detectors. si, of" :: 3000 mcasur ed e, and li,s1on Jccays .
3

Excitation function of the reaction 511 Fe + zoK Ph- 266 IOI!* and the Thc 2 n - c vap or atlon cnanncl ha, a cr ovs-vcction lcss than 1 0 pb
decay of ?6SIO!!. Thc mcasurcd cxcitation Iuncrio n is shown in Fig. at E * = 1 9 . 2 \1cV ( F i g . 2h). In spite ofthc fact that this channcl

2h. Thc collcctcd hcam doses for the 7 data point s varicd bciwccn is partly subbarricr in zsH 104• and open in 2<,•10K•, it is signif­
0.3 and 1 . 1 x 1018. A total bcarn <lose o! 4 . 4 , 1 0 1 K projectilcs was icantly supprcsscd compared to 2�HJ04*. Thc mean dccrcasc in
collcctcd during 4 wccks of irradiation time. 1 n case of thc data crcss-scction per element going from 2�H104• to 2MJ()8• is a factor
point at E * = 1 3 . 6 \1cV we had to doublc thc positivc error bar, of 3. 5 for the I n channci a n d a factor of <, for thc 2n channel. This
bccausc thc targct was partly damagcd by a too high hcam intcn- cxperiment shows that the m a xi m u m production cross-scctions are
sity. A lcast squarcs fit of a gaussian curve through the data measurcd at suhharricr en cr gi cs. Shi l 'ts of the barricr s rcsulting
fr orn prcdictcd cxtrapush energies are not obscrvcd. The fusion
points rcsults in an cncrgy ar E • = ( 1 3 . 4 ± 0. 3 J \1 c v lar thc cross-
of thesc hcavy nudci is a vcry rarc, low cncrgy arrangcmcnt proc-
scction maximurn. The width oí the cxcitation íuncuo n is
css. The emi ssion or one neutron cools the ,ystem down to a leve!
( 4 . 8 ± 0 . 7 ) \1 c V . Thc max imum cr ovs-scctron valuc i, (<,1 ± J O) pb.
or exc,tation energy, which a ll o ws thc final nucleus to profit rully
Altogcthcr wc collcctcd 75 alpha dccuys of 2 1 •5 JOX . 'lhc assign-
lrom the shell ,tahilisation.
mcnt was madc on thc basis of mcasured a-dccav chams viu thc
daughter nuclci 26 1 106 , 2 5 7104 and 2s 3 ,o. Dclaycd :x-a coincidcncc
The reaetion 62 N i + 20H Ph- 270 11 0 * and the deeay of 2 6 9 1 1 0. A lin-
spcctra are shown in lig, 3 . Thc top spcctrum, lig. Ja, was una-
ear e x tra p o la tion o í t he optimum hcam energies for the production
lyscd on thc condition, that the a dccays were preceded hy high
or2 s 1 io4 anJ 26 5)()8 in ln -cva p oratio n channcls results in E * = 1 2 . 3
energy signa Is ( ; , : 25 \1 cV) from irnpla nr a uons. Ihcsc haJ to he in
\1 c V for the com pou nd nu cl eus 2 7 º 1 1 0 . The corresponding 62Ni
coincidcncc with thc signals from thc timc-of-ílight dctcctors.
beam encrgy is E = 3 1 1 \1cV. Artcr collecting a heam <lose of
Two a lincs with cncrgies of ( 10. J 1 0 ± 0.020) \1 c V and 0.24x !0 18 , an a-decay chain was found, that started with a previ-

( 10 .578 ± 0.020) Me V could he assigncd to m 10 8 . \Vithin the sta- ously not observcd a decay with an cnergy or ( 1 1 . 1 3 2 ± 0.020)
tistical unccrtainty both lincs dccay with thc samc halt-Iifc oí \1 e V , 39 3 µs aíter an imp l a n t ation signal or 25 \1 c V. The ob-
( 1 . 5 5 ± 0.20) ms. Thcsc mcasurcmcnts conlirm thc prcviously oh- scrved complete dccay chain is shown in Fig. 4 togcthcr with its
taincd data, which wcrc madc on thc basis of 3 obscrvcd decay interprctation.
chains rcsulting in thc discovcry of clcmcnt 1 0 8 .

+ 208pb
a,/�
Date 09-Nov-1994
Time 16 : 39 h
�· 11.132 MeV, 393 µs

al

261106 q ª2,/
10.574 MeV, 583 µs

(/)
+
' b) a3�
e 8 9 . 5 7 6 MeV; 72 ms
::,
o
u

ª',!' 2.113 MeV, 779 ms

e) escape

Fig. 4. Assignmcnt of thc observcd dclayed coincidcncc signals to

the a-dccay cha in oP69 l l O.
d)

8 9 10 11
Energy / MeV
Fig. 3. Dclaycd a - a coincidcncc spcctra showing four gcncrations
o r a dccays hcginning with 21• 5 JOX . Spcctrum a ¡ wa-, accumulatcr'
on thc condition that an im pl a nt a tio n s ign a ! occured within a time
window of 20 ms hcforc an a dccav, and that at lcast onc membcr
of thc dccay chain Iollowcd within time windows of 2 , (h ) , 20 s ( e )
and 200 s (d). Com m on Ior ali spcctra was thc conditio n that the
signals ori g in a te from the same pov itio n of the <ame d e t e c tor s t rip.
12 .,\ ll Jccay signa Is rrom the silicon ,top detector origina te rrom
the strip or numhcr 1 0 that is in hori1.ontal direction 7 . .5 mm from
thc centcr oí thc detector. I n the vertical Jirection, the signals are
rrom po si t i o ns I mm hclow thc centcr. Thc full encrgy e, si gn al s
are o hscneJ wit h i n ± 270 µm ol' thc po si tio n or thc implantcd
nudc u,, thc escaping a·s within ± I .(, mm. Thc encrgies of' a 1 and
�z r c,u lt lron'i � particlcs sto ppcd complctclv i n strip numher 1 0.
Thc cncrgy of � 1 is thc sum ol' a O.XI>') \1cV �E signa! rrom strip
nurnhcr JO plus a X. 70, \ 1 c V coin ci dcnt rc,i dual- cncrgy ,ignal
4

from the backward detector. Within 20 keV the full cnergics of thc References
two a decays subscquent to a1 agree with the prcviously measured
l. G. M ünzcnbcrg et al., Z. Phys. A 300, 107 ( 1 981 ); Z. Phys.
a energics of 2 65 108 and 261106. Also, thc time intcrvals between A 3 1 7 , 235 ( 1 9 8 4 ) ; Z. Phys. A 309, 89 ( 1 9 8 2 )
a 1 - a2 and a2 - a3 are in agreement with the half-lives of thesc two
2. G. Münzcnbcrg et al., Nucl, Instr. Mcth. 1 6 1 , 65 ( 1 9 7 9 )
nuclci. Thc ncxt signal, a4 rcsults from an escape cvcnt, but the
3. S. llofmann et al., z. Phys. A 2 9 1 , .53 ( 1 9 7 9 ) ; Nucl. lnstr.
mcasurcd time intcrval is in agrcemcnt with thc halí-lifc of2S 7 (04.
Mcth. 223, 3 1 2 ( 1 9 8 4 )
Proton cvaporation is a cornpctitivc, encrgctically possible chan-
4. S. 1 Iofmann, Actinides-93, Santa Fe, Ncw Mcxico, USA;
ncl. But this channcl would lca<l into a decay chain with 261 J05 as
Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2 l : l , ' 2 1 4 , 74 ( 1994)
daughter product, which has cornplctcly difTerent dccay charactcr-
.5. A. Sobiczcwski, Physics of Particlcs and Nuclci, 25, 295
istics as measured far oc 3. We, thercforc, assign the observed decay
?�)
chain to thc n-dccay of 2 6 9 1 1 0 . The half-life is (270� 1 us. The
( 1 993) and prívate communications
S. Cwiok et al., :-.;ucl. Phys. 573, 35(, ( 1994)
resulting cross-scction is (3.3�tn pb. 6. ¡\
Thc irradiations are bcing
continued, and we hope to lind furthcr dccay chains of elemcnt 1 1 0 7. P. M ó l lc r and R. Nix. J . Phys. G: Nucl, Part. Phys, 20, 1 6 8 1 (
alrcady during the cxpcrirncnt still going on. 1994)

Wc thank the L:-.:1 LAC stafT far the cxccllcnt performance of 8. 1 1 . Folgcr et al., Nucl. Instr. Mcth. A 334, 69 ( 1 9 9 3 )

thc ion sourccs and thc accclerator. We are much indcbtcd to our 9. S. Liran and ;\;. Zeldes, Atornic Data and Nucl. Data Tables
colleagues from the department of experimental clcctrorncs and 17, 431 (1976)

data acquisition. Thc enriched ion source material 58Fe has been 10. G. Audi and A . 1 1 . Wapstra, Nucl. Phys. ¡\ .56.5, 1 ( 1 993)
providcd by FLNR-Jlr,rn, Dubna, 11. R. Bass, :-.;ucl. Phys. A 2 3 1 , 45 ( 1 9 7 4 )

Note added in prooí. The irradiations far invcstigation of the re­ Altcgcthcr we obscrvcd a numbcr of four dccay chains of 2 6 9 1 1 0
ac�o-� 62 :-.;¡ + 2 8Pb cndcd :-.;ovember 20th., 19 94 . Aftcr completion
º within a total measuring time of twelve days. The collccted pro­
of this papcr wc observed thrcc more decay chains. The assign­ jectilc dose was 2.2 x 101 8 . The resulting cross-scction far pro­
mcnt of thc measured encrgy, time and position signals is shown duction of269 ! IO is a = (3. 5 �U) pb. The average a energy is E0
in Fig. 5. = ( 1 1 . 1 1 2 ± 0.020) MeV and thc average half-lifc is T112 =
( 1 7 0 :_ 1 :g) us.

269110 CN
1.939 Mt!N¡ 201 11.095 Mt!N¡ 142 µs 11.110 Mt!N¡ 241 µs
escape

ms

8.022 Me'I¡ 42.7 s

Date 11-Nov-1994 Date 12-Nov-1994 Date, 17-Nov-1994

íome 1l17 h Trr,e, 19,22 h íome, 11,50 h

Fig. S. Last thrcc of thc four mcasurcd dccay chains assigncd to 2 6 9 1 10 .