Towards high precision mass measurements of Highly Charged Ions using the Phase-Imaging Ion-Cyclotron-Resonance technique at TITAN

High-precision mass measurements of short-lived ions have been traditionally performed using the Time-of-Flight Ion-Cyclotron-Resonance technique (ToF-ICR) with Singly Charged Ions (SCI) in Penning traps. In order to reach higher precision, TITAN is currently using the ToF-ICR technique with Highly Charged Ions (HCI) [1], taking advantage of the fact that the uncertainty of the mass is proportional to the factor 1/q, where q is the charge state of the ion. Meanwhile, a different technique, the so-called Phase-Imaging Ion-Cyclotron-Resonance (PI-ICR), which has been applied in other facilities with SCI, has been proven to offer a gain in resolving power and precision compared to the ToF-ICR technique [2–4]. In an effort to reach new levels of precision in the mass measurements of short-lived species at TITAN, we investigated the scenario of performing mass measurements of HCI using the PI-ICR technique. Simulations showed that as the charge state of the ions increases, the image of the ion motion in the trap appears more and more magnified on the detector. This results in an increase in the resolution of the mass measurement up to an order of magnitude.