New region of deformation in the neutron-rich 60 24Cr36 and 62 24Cr38

The neutron-rich nuclei 23 60-63V have been produced at GANIL via interactions of a 61.8A·MeV 76Ge beam with a 58Ni target. Beta-decay to 24 60-63Cr has been investigated using combined β- and γ-ray spectroscopy. Half-lives of the 60-63V nuclei have been determined, and the existence of a beta-decay isomer in the 60V nucleus is strongly supported. The observation of low-energy 2+ states in 60Cr (646keV) and 62Cr (446keV) suggests that these isotopes are strongly deformed with β2 ∼ 0.3. This is confirmed by shell model calculations which show the dominant influence of the intruder g and d orbitals to obtain low 2+ energies in the neutron-rich Cr isotopes.