Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 97, 19 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2022210270

Regular Article

Separation of manganese isotopes by resonance ionization mass spectrometry for ⁵³Mn half-life determination

¹ Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
² GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
³ Helmholtz Institut Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, 55128 Mainz, Germany
⁴ Paul Scherrer Institut, Forschungsstrasse 111, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

^* e-mail: nina.kneip@uni-mainz.de

Received: 29 November 2021
Received in final form: 14 January 2022
Accepted: 17 January 2022
Published online: 11 March 2022

Abstract

We report on the production of ultra-pure samples of the long-lived radioisotope ⁵³Mn for precision measurements of its half-life. Activated samples from a copper beam dump from PSI, which was irradiated with 590 MeV protons, were used for extraction of the manganese fraction. Following initial radiochemical purification, efficient three-photon laser resonance ionization of manganese inside a hot-cavity laser ion source was applied for subsequent isotope selection in a 30 keV high transmission magnetic mass separator. A new ionization scheme was developed and characterized for ⁵³Mn implantation. In this way the isobar ⁵³Cr and the Mn isotopes ^54,55Mn are quantitavely removed, with a special focus on the radioactive ⁵⁴Mn isotope. Microgram quantities of ⁵³Mn were implanted into Al targets with an isotopic and isobaric purity of well above 10³. An overall efficiency of the enrichment process of about 15% was demonstrated.