Mass measurements near N=Z

After an outline of the physics motivations, that illustrate why we think it is important to measure masses in the region N approximate to Z, we report on on experiments performed at Ganil. An experiment aimed at measuring the masses of proton-rich nuclei in the mass region A approximate to 60-80 has been performed, using a direct time-of-flight technique in conjunction with SISSI and the SPEG spectrometer at GANIL. The nuclei were produced via the fragmentation of a Kr-78 beam (73 MeV/nucleon). A novel technique for the purification of the secondary beams, based on the stripping of the ions and using the alpha and the SPEG spectrometers, was succesfully checked. It allows for good selectivity without altering the beam quality. Secondary ions of Ag-100, Cd-100, In-100 and Sn-100 were produced via the fusion-evaporation reaction Cr-50 + Ni-58 at an energy of 5.1 MeV/nucleon, and were accelerated simultaneously in the second cyclotron of GANIL (CSS2). About 10 counts were observed from the production and acceleration of Sn-100(22+). The masses of Cd-100, In-100 and Sn-100 were measured with respect to Ag-100 using the CSS2 cyclotron, with precisions of 2 x 10(-6), 3 x 10(-6) and 10(-5) respectively.