At Central Michigan University (CMU), we are developing the CMU High Precision Penning trap (CHIP-TRAP), with the aim of performing high-precision mass measurements on stable and long-lived radioactive isotopes. CHIP-TRAP utilizes a laser ablation source (LAS) and a Penning ion trap source (PITS) to produce ions from solid and gaseous samples, respectively. In either case, contaminant ions are produced along with the ions of interest. To increase efficiency and sensitivity to ions produced in small quantities, such as radioactive ions, contaminant ions must be removed before they reach the Penning trap. To this end, we are implementing a multi-reflection time-of-flight mass separator (MR-TOF-MS) between the ion sources and the Penning trap. Along the way ions of particular m/q will be selected with MR-TOF-MS, with further filtering being performed in a cylindrical capture trap before the ions are transported to a pair of hyperbolic measurement traps. All three traps (one capture and two measurement) traps will be situated in a 12 T magnetic field and maintained at 4 K temperature using a pulse tube cryocooler.
In this presentation, I will provide updates on the design, construction, and testing of the ion sources, MR-TOF-MS, beamline and cryocooler, as well as the overall status of the CHIP-TRAP project
