Development of an Advanced Fission - Fusion - Evaporation Residue Detection System

A detector system, to measure fission fragments and evaporation residues resulting from collisions induced by rare neutron-rich nuclei, is being designed. The detector system is intended for use with radioactive ion beams and with low intensity stable beams ($\leq$ 5$\times$10$^{4}$ particles per second) and will require high efficiency. The primary detector will consist of an ionization chamber lined with double-sided silicon-strip detectors and will provide for tracking and particle identification capabilities over a wide angular range. Design and simulation of the detector system, using {\sc GEANT4}, is ongoing. Complete tracking and response simulations for fragments and residues will be performed by incorporating statistical-model-code events ({\it e.g.} from {\sc GEMINI} or {\sc PACE2}) into the calculations. Details of the detector design and simulations and results of fission fragment and evaporation residue efficiency calculations will be presented. The impact of the expected performance on planned radioactive beam experiments, including attempts to synthesize heavy elements, will be discussed as well.