Speaker
Description
At the 88-inch cyclotron facility of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory the nuclear properties of exotic heavy and superheavy elements are studied using the FIONA (for the identification of nuclide $A$) apparatus coupled to the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator (BGS). Actinide and transactinide isotopes created in fusion-evaporation reactions are collected using the BGS and either delivered to a detector station where their decay properties can be studied, or they are injected into FIONA for A/q identification. Decay properties of proton-rich Es isotopes created in the $^{209}$Bi($^{34}$S, $xn$)$^{243-x}$Es reaction were examined and unambiguously assigned through mass identification measurements with FIONA, culminating in the first ever observation of $^{239}$Es.
