Direct mass measurements of the heaviest elements with Penning traps

Penning-trap mass spectrometry (PTMS) has become the method of choice for direct high-precision mass measurements of radionuclides in recent years. This has opened up many new possibilities for the study of the nuclear structure evolution in nuclides far away from stability. The introduction of buffer-gas stopping along with advanced ion-manipulation techniques has extended the reach of PTNIS to radionuclides produced in fusion evaporation reactions. Thus, the elements heavier than fermium that can only be produced in this way are now also accessible to PTMS. This contribution reviews the present status of direct mass measurements of the heaviest elements taking the pioneering measurements with SHIPTRAP at GSI as an example. Novel approaches that can be realized combining PTMS with other techniques are addressed and the future perspectives for experiments on superheavy elements are discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.