Characterizing Detector Response Functions for Isotopic Fission Yield Ratios

Nuclear fission is a complicated process that remains incompletely understood. Characterization of fission product yields (FPY) is instrumental for both applied and fundamental science. FPYs of fissioning nuclei are critical inputs for modeling fission far from stability, which in turn is vital for understanding the astrophysical Rapid Neutron Capture Process. The Californium Rare Isotope Breeder Unit (CARIBU) at ATLAS at Argonne National Lab produced rare isotope beams from the spontaneous fission of ²⁵²Cf. A novel approach to measuring FPY with the Canadian Penning Trap (CPT) at CARIBU made use of the Phase-Imaging Ion-Cyclotron-Resonance (PI-ICR) technique which separates ions and measures their location with a position-sensitive MCP detector. Unfortunately, the PS-MCP has a position-dependent gain, so the returned data is skewed. To rectify the detector error, a corrective function was constructed from the output data to make the collected data usable. The adjusted data gives fission yields to compare with the recorded yield ratios from England & Ryder and JEFF 3.1.