Toward a more accurate Q value measurement of tritium: status of THe-Trap

• Published in: Applied physics. B, Lasers and optics Vol. 114; no. 1-2; pp. 137 - 145
• Main Authors: Streubel, S., Eronen, T., Höcker, M., Ketter, J., Schuh, M., Van Dyck, R. S., Blaum, K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.01.2014
• Subjects: Antineutrinos; Engineering; Helium-3; Lasers; Mass ratios; Optical Devices; Optics; Photonics; Physical Chemistry; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Q values; Quantum Optics; Stores; Tritium; Uncertainty; Axial Frequency; Radial Frequency; Tritium; Cyclotron Frequency; Neutrino Mass
• ISSN: 0946-2171; 1432-0649
• DOI: 10.1007/s00340-013-5669-x

The goal of the THe-Trap experiment is to measure the tritium/helium-3 mass ratio in order to deduce the Q value of the tritium β-decay. A relative uncertainty of 10 parts per trillion in the mass ratio would allow determining the Q value with a precision of 30 meV. This value is of relevance for the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) collaboration, which is building a spectrometer to measure the mass of the electron antineutrino. In this contribution, we present the progress made in the past 2 years. We can, e.g., store, manipulate and detect single ions. To demonstrate the current accuracy, we measured the carbon-12 to oxygen-16 mass ratio with a relative uncertainty of 120 parts per trillion in early 2013. The improvements, current status and future perspectives will be presented.