A multi-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrograph for short-lived and super-heavy nuclei

Highlights: • Demonstrated very fast mass measurements with a multi-reflection time of flight mass spectrograph. • Mass resolving power of Rm≈150,000 was achieved in 1.2-ms for A/q=39 ions. • Mass precision of (δm)/m =7.7×108 was demonstrated for 40Ca+. • Effects of thermal and voltage instabilities are described. • Effects of thermal and voltage instabilities are described. -- Abstract: A multi-reflection time-of-flight (MRTOF) mass spectrograph has been implemented at RIKEN to provide high-precision mass measurements of very short-lived nuclei. Of particular interest are mass measurements of r-process nuclei and trans-uranium nuclei. In such nuclei, the MRTOF can perform on par with or better than traditional Penning trap systems. We demonstrate that the MRTOF-MS is capable of accurately attaining relative mass precision of δm/m<10-7 and describe it's utility with heavy, short-lived nuclei