A New Gas Stopper for Heavy Element Chemistry Research at the Texas A{\&}M University Cyclotron Institute

A Recoil Transfer Chamber (RTC) to facilitate the chemical study of the heaviest elements, created via fusion-evaporation reactions, has been fabricated at the Cyclotron Institute at Texas A{\&}M University. This gas stopper is a hybrid of previously used RTCs in the transactinide field and one used at Michigan State University for stopping products from projectile fragmentation reactions. Our RTC uses laminar gas flow and a series of electrodes that create a potential gradient to efficiently transport evaporation residues to an appropriate chemistry experiment. The RTC was characterized offline using $^{216}$Po recoils from a $^{228}$Th source and online using a high cross section fusion-evaporation reaction, $^{118}$Sn($^{40}$Ar, 6n)$^{152}$Er. Results show an online extraction efficiency of (70 $+$/- 9) {\%}, which is comparable to devices used worldwide. This talk will discuss the design of the RTC and present results from offline and online experiments.