Fast timing with LaBr3 detector arrays and measurement of the half-life of the I^{pi} = 4^{-} intruder state in 34P

When?

Tuesday 11 October 2011, 14:00

Where?

30 BB 03 Physics Seminar Room

Open to:

Staff, Students

Speaker:

Pete Mason, University of Surrey

The recently developed scintillation material LaBr3 combines excellent timing properties with high energy resolution (typically 3% at 662 keV). This has led to interest in its application for the measurement of sub-nanosecond nuclear half-lives. The properties of LaBr3 detectors and principals of fast-timing are presented along with an example experiment on the in-beam measurement of the half-life of the I^{pi}=4^{-} intruder state in 34P.

34P lies on the neutron-rich side of stability approaching the region of anomalous nuclear structure know as the "island of inversion". The low-lying I^{pi}=4^{-} intruder state in this isotope is associated with excitations across the well-known N=20 shell gap. Excited  states in 34P were populated in the 18O(18O,pn)34P reaction at the Tandem Accelerator facility in Bucharest and studied with a mixed array of LaBr3 and HPGe detectors.