The highest ranking! China's superheavy element research accelerator facility sets a new record.

3月22日，从中国科学院近代物理研究所获悉， The China Superheavy Element Research Accelerator Facility (CAFE2) developed by the institute has made a major breakthrough, successfully achieving stable operation of a beam with a current intensity of 14.8 particles and an energy of 224 MeV on the target, creating a record of the highest current intensity for the operating beam parameters of similar international devices. 。

▲ China Superheavy Element Research Accelerator Device. Map provided by the Institute of Modern Physics

Research on the synthesis of superheavy elements has always been a hot topic in the scientific community. So far, scientists have discovered a total of 118 elements. In the past few decades, the United States, Japan, Germany, Russia and other countries have successfully synthesized more than a dozen new elements and hundreds of new nuclides. Russia and Japan have also developed special accelerator devices for the research of superheavy elements, with a maximum current intensity of 10.4 particle microamps.

CAFE2 will be completed and produced in 2022, and the device has been running for more than 10000 hours. So far, the Institute of Modern Physics has successfully synthesized 38 new nuclides, and its research results have been published many times in the international academic journal Physical Review Letters and reported online by the Physics Journal of the American Physical Society.

CAFE2 has accumulated valuable data and experience for the synthesis of superheavy new elements, and the successful operation of the microampere current of 14.8 particles has provided good experimental conditions for the impact synthesis of new elements No. 119 and No. 120, providing Chinese scientists with the lead in synthesizing the new elements of the eighth cycle of the Periodic Table of Elements, providing greater possibilities for achieving a breakthrough in the element naming zero.