0000000000076411
AUTHOR
T G Cooper
First on-line laser spectroscopy of radioisotopes of a refractory element
The first fully on-line isotope shift measurement of a radioactive refractory element is reported. Collinear laser-induced fluorescence measurements were made on the radioactive isotopes ${}^{170,172,173,174}\mathrm{Hf}$ produced with a flux of $2--3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{3}$ ions per second from an ion-guide fed isotope separator. The method may be applied to all elements and isomers with lifetimes as short as 1 ms. The systematics of the new charge radii measurements are well reproduced by theory, with the maximum deformation in the chain occurring significantly below the midshell.
First measurement of radioisotopes by collinear laser spectroscopy at an ion-guide separator
The first successful application of an ion-guide separator (IGISOL) for collinear laser spectroscopy of radioisotopes has achieved an efficiency comparable with the best obtained with catcher-ionizer facilities. The ion beam energy spread was determined to be less than 6 eV, allowing laser fluorescence resonance signals for the Ba-140,Ba-142,Ba-144 radioisotopes to be detected with high resolution and sensitivity. Applications of this technique to measuring nuclear properties of refractory elements and short lived isomers promises to be particularly advantageous.
A thirty second isomer in Hf
An isomer has been detected in Hf-171 with a half-life of T-1/2 = 29.5(9) s. The state was populated in the Yb-170(alpha,3n)Hf-171m reaction at a beam energy of E-alpha = 50 MeV in an on-line ion guide isotope separator. The isomeric Hf-17lm(+) beam was extracted from the ion guide, mass-analysed and implanted in the surface of a microchannel-plate. The half-life of the collected activity was measured from the decay of the microchannel-plate count rate. We associate the isomer with the first excited slate in Hf-171 with spin 1/2(-) at an excitation energy of 22(2) keV.