Project Mjolnir: High efficiency real time mass spearator and ion trap

A low energy mass separator and ion trap for the real time separation and trapping of radioactive isotopes has been developed. The apparatus consists of an ultra-high purity helium buffered electrostatic recoil gas stopper and RF carpet to guide ions from a radioactive source to the exit aperture. A natural helium jet created at the exit imparts momentum to the ions. The ions enter a large acceptance radio-frequency quadrupole ion guide which has a DC gradient applied to it. The ions are cooled in the residual helium buffer gas are damped and collimated and continuously injected into a quadrupole mass separator (QMS). Ions are mass and charge selected in the QMS and exit into another RFQ for further beam collimation before being injected into a linear ion trap. The entire apparatus has been designed to be able to continuously load the ion trap. The ion trap is physically small allowing a large solid angle to be covered by detectors to study of short-lived isomers. Project Mjolnir latest status will be presented.