Observation of new neutron-deficient isotopes with Z ≥ 92 in multinucleon transfer reactions

In deep inelastic multinucleon transfer reactions of ⁴⁸Ca + ²⁴⁸Cm we observed about 100 residual nuclei with proton numbers between Z = 82 and Z = 100. Among them, there are five new neutron-deficient isotopes: ²¹⁶U, ²¹⁹Np, ²²³Am, ²²⁹Am and ²³³Bk. As separator for the transfer products we used the velocity filter SHIP of GSI while the isotope identification was performed via the α decay chains of the nuclei. These first results reveal that multinucleon transfer reactions together with here applied fast and sensitive separation and detection techniques are promising for the synthesis of new isotopes in the region of heaviest nuclei.