Abstract
The Momentum Achromat Recoil Spectrometer (MARS) is a high-resolution separator at the Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M University. MARS consists of an achromatic section followed by a velocity filter, and its suitability as a separator for heavy element research has been studied. Alpha particle sources have been used to measure the acceptance of the velocity filter and extend its calibration to slow ions (v/c≈2%). An online method for measuring the beam dose using “Rutherford” scattering has been implemented. The performance of the entire system has been checked in experiments to produce At and Po isotopes with the 40Ar+165Ho reaction, and a beam rejection factor of ≳1015 has been obtained. The setup is currently suitable for measuring cross sections on the order of millibarns and microbarns, and further improvements in sensitivity are planned.