Study of the β-delayed neutron decay of 17C and 18C

Abstract The β-delayed neutron decays of 17C and 18C have been studied using a time-of-flight array with a high detection efficiency. The 17C and 18C ions were produced by fragmentation of an E A = 69 MeV 22Ne beam. Transitions to several neutron unbound states have been observed for the first time for both decays with total branching ratios of (10.8 ± 2.2)% and (21.4 ± 4.4)%. Half-lives of 193 ± 6 ms and 92 ± 2 ms were found for 17C and 18C, respectively. The results are compared with previous measurements of the β-decays and with shell-model calculations.