Commissioning of Experimental Setup for Conversion Electron Spectroscopy of the Fission Isomer in 239Pu

Abstract

In order to prepare for studies of the single-particle-structure in 239fPu, a setup for conversion electron spectroscopy was commissioned at the Garching Tandem accelerator. A new large-area fission fragment detector was developed based on commercial solar cell modules. Placed at backward angles, a recoil-shadow technique was applied using the 238U(alpha,3n) reaction. Isomeric fission fragment detection in the solar cell detector array provided a clean trigger on the rare population of the fission isomer in 239Pu. While the setup could be commisssioned successfully, it turned out that for the main conversion electron measurement a pulsed alpha-beam will be required in order to suppress prompt electron emitted from excited fission fragments.