] ~ l Nuclear Physics A196 (1972) 9--16; (~) North-Holland Publishing Co.

, Amsterdam
Not to be reproduced by photoprint or microfilmwithout writtenpermissionfrom the pusblisher

ACCURATE LIFETIMES FOR THE 4 + AND 6 +

ROTATIONAL STATES IN 156Gd
D. WARD, R. L. GRAHAM and J. S. GEIGER
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario, Canada
and
N. R U D t and A. CHRISTY
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Received 1st June 1972

Abstraet: The lifetimes of the 4 + and 6 + levels of the ground-state rotational band in ~S6Gd have
been re-measured with higher precision. The states were populated by multiple Coulomb exci-
tation with an 80 MeV 35C1 beam. The Doppler-shift recoil distance method, in which 7-rays
were detected in coincidence with back-scattered ions, was used to determine the lifetimes. The
attenuation of the 7-ray angular distribution for the 4-~ 2 transition in lS6Gd implanted in
copper was measured with the result G2 -- 0.89 ~0.05 and G4 = 0.88 J-0.10. The results for the
lifetimes were ~(4 +) = 164.03.0 ps, r(6 +) ~ 22.8~0.55 ps. These results are consistent with
the predictions of the rigid-rotor model.

EI NUCLEAR REACTIONS 156Gd(35C1' 35C1')' E : 80 MeV; measured recil distance" I

lSdGd levels deduced T~.

1. Introduction

It is well k n o w n that the level spacings between members of ground-state r o t a t i o n a l

b a n d s do n o t obey the rigid-rotor I ( I + 1) rule exactly. The deviations could arise
from various causes such as Coriolis anti-pairing, fourth-order c r a n k i n g - m o d e l
corrections, a n d centrifugal stretching 1). One m e t h o d of distinguishing between
the various possibilities is to compare the observed E2 t r a n s i t i o n probabilities
with the c o r r e s p o n d i n g predictions. Several groups have made m e a s u r e m e n t s o f
r o t a t i o n a l t r a n s i t i o n probabilities b o t h in multiple C o u l o m b excitation 2 - 6 ) a n d by
direct lifetime m e a s u r e m e n t 1, 7- 9). I n the N = 90 nuclei the deviations from rota-
tional B ( E 2 ) seem to be in reasonable agreement with those expected from the mixing
of the ]~-vibrational b a n d into the g r o u n d - s t a t e band. However, in some good rotors
unexpected deviations have been reported. F o r example, R o b i n s o n et al. 2) f o u n d that
the B ( E 2 ) value for the 6 ~ 4 a n d 8 ~ 6 transitions in several good rotors (166Er,
72,174, 1 7 6 y b ) d r o p p e d significantly below the rotational prediction. Similar findings
were reported by Riedinger 3) in 1 7 4 y b a n d 176yb. O n the other h a n d R u d et al. 8)
f o u n d that the 6 ~ 4 t r a n s i t i o n B ( E 2 ) in l ~ 6 G d was considerably larger t h a n the
t Dept. of Physics, University of Aarhus, Denmark.
9
10 D. WARD et al.

rotational prediction although the uncertainties were quite large. Similarly Diamond
e t al. 1 ) reported B(E2) values in 154Sm which, although consistent with the rotational
model, did not exclude the possibility of relatively large deviations.
In an earlier paper 8) we included results on the lifetimes of the 4 + and 6 + rota-
tional levels in 156Gd. Those results were obtained as a bonus from measurements
which were made on a ~s 4Gd target containing 12 % 156Gd" The uncertainties in the
56Gd results were relatively large. In this paper we present lifetime results for the
4 + and 6 + levels in lS6Gd obtained using a target enriched to 95 % in 156Gd and
which are accurate to < 2 %. It is planned to extend the study to the 8 + and 10 +
band members when the upgrading of the MP tandem accelerator has been com-
pleted.

2. Experimental method
The apparatus and procedure were essentially the same as those described in ref. 8).
We used the recoil distance method, and the states of interest were populated by
multiple Coulomb excitation. G a m m a rays were detected in coincidence with back-
scattered ions. The main departure from ref. 8) was in the choice of material for the
stopping plate and target backing layer. In previous studies we have usually employed
nickel for both the stopping plate, and target backing layer. Although nickel has many
advantages for this purpose, it gives rise to serious attenuation of ~-ray angular
distributions from recoils which de-excite in the stopping plate. This effect is mainly
caused by the hyperfine interaction in the transient field 8, 10). The recoils which
decay in flight are not affected by this, but are de-oriented by the hyperfine interaction
in the fluctuating atomic field of the recoiling ion 8. tl, 12). Both these types of de-
orientation affect the ratio of the ~,-ray intensities stemming from stopped and moving
recoil nuclei, and corrections must be applied. In our earlier measurements we found
that the uncertainties in the attentuation within the nickel stopper were more sig-
nificant than those occurring in flight. In the present measurements we have therefore
used copper for the stopping plate, which introduces less attentuation in the ~-ray
angular distributions. Similary we have used stretched copper backing foils ( ~
m g c m - 2) instead of nickel foils to carry the evaporated target layer ( ~ ! m g c m - 2).
This removes the possibility (however remote) of the recoiling ion picking up polarized
electrons on its passage through the backing layer, thus introducing anomalies in
the hyperfine interaction in vacuum.
The Chalk River MP tandem provided a beam of 35C1 ions at 80 MeV. This energy
was chosen to give a conveniently large cross section for multiple Coulomb excitation
of the 6 + level while at the same time keeping small the feeding corrections for the
6 + and 4 + levels from decays of the 8 and 6 + levels, respectively.
Portions of typical y-spectra taken at 0 in coincidence with back-scattered ions
are shown in fig. 1. Measurements were taken at 25 settings of the stopping plate
covering the range 28 to 2800/~m. An additional measurement was made with the
 156Gd LIFETIMES 11

stopping plate ~ 13 m m away from the target and provided an "infinite distance"
value for the 4 + decay.

15SGd+3'5C1 (80 MeV)

7" s

4~2 d = 28/.t. m
6~4

m
2500 IOO

- I
._1 d = 560/.t.m
Ld
Z
Z
1"

rr
t.LI 5000
0,..

l--
Z
::)
0
(...)

d = ~ 13 mm

500 250

,j
400 450 600 - - 650
CHANNEL NUMBER

Fig. 1. Portions of the coincident 7-spectra after subtraction of randoms. The stopped and moving
components are labelled 7s and 7,,, respectively.
 12 D. WARD et aL

A separate experiment was performed to establish the 7-ray angular distribution

attenuation coefficients G z and G 4 for the 4 + --* 2 + transition from recoils implanted
in copper. In this experiment the target material was evaporated directly onto a
copper plate and bombarded with 80 MeV 3 sc1 ions. The angular distribution of the
4 + --+ 2 + y-rays was measured using a moveable detector to count sequentially at
each of 5 angles in the range 0-90 , monitoring with a second detector fixed at 90 .
Both the singles spectra and spectra taken in coincidence with back-scattered ions
were stored simultaneously. At the end of the experiment the absorption effect of
the copper plate, and the effect of possible misalignment of the beam spot relative
to the centre of rotation of the y-ray detector were determined by measuring the
angular distribution of 320 keV y-rays from a very small radioactive source of 51Cr
placed on the beam spot position.

3. Results

The coincidence data were recorded as four-parameter events (7-ray pulse height,
particle pulse height, T A C output and capacity sensing pulser a) on magnetic tape.
The results presented here are based on off-line playback of these data with appro-
priate windows set on the various parameters. The intensities of the stopped and
moving components for the 6 + ~ 4 + transitions were obtained by a straightforward
procedure of channel summation with background subtraction. For the case of the
4 + ~ 2 + ;~-ray, these techniques were not adequate since the peaks were not entirely
resolved. These peaks were fitted using Gaussian shapes on a quadratic background.
The peak shape parameters were determined from the spectra taken at infinite and
zero distances (i.e. with t56Gd evaporated directly on the stopper).
The intensities from the stopped ()'~) and moving components (Tm) were corrected
for the following effects which were described in detail in ref. 8): (i) the relativistic
aberration term, (ii) the detection eMciency, and (iii) the line shape of the stopped
component which extended to some degree into the moving component owing to the
finite slowing down time in the stopper. The total effect of all these corrections was
less than 3 % in the present measurements.
In addition a correction was applied to account for the "effective" source-detector
distance which is a different function of stopper setting for the stopped and moving
components. This correction changed the apparent lifetime of the 4 + level by about
1 % and was negligible for the 6 + level.
The ratio 7s/(Ts + 7,,) as a function of target-stopper separation is a decay curve for
the activity 8). However in deducing the lifetime it was necessary to correct for de-
orientation effects in the stopper and recoils in flight. The results for attenuation
in the stopper were G2 = 0.89___ 0.05 and G4 = 0.88+0.10 for the 4 + ~ 2 + 7-ray,
where we have used the Winther-De Boer computer program 13) to calculate the un-
perturbed angular distribution coefficients. These values are in reasonable accord
with the results of Waddington et al. 14) for the corresponding transition in t S4Sm
 156Gd LIFETIMES 13

implanted in copper. This is a useful check since the lifetimes and the intrinsic quad-
rupole moments for the ground-state bands in the two nuclei are similar. One would
also expect the g-factor to be similar since the measured g-factors for the 2 + states
are identical within experimental error 15). For the 6 + level we have assumed that

TIME (p$)
~00 200 300 400 soo
1.0
0.8
I
0.6

. 0.4
+

~ o.2

O
0"1 f
rr( ~ 0 . 0 8

0.06[

0'04 i

0.02/ I I I ! I I I I I I I
0 0.5 1.0 1,5 2.0 2.5
DISTANCE (mm)
Fig. 2. Decay curve for the 4 ~ 2 transition in tS6Od.

TIME (p$)
20 40 60 80 I00
1.0 . j I i ] I I I I I I
0.8
0.6

0.4

?.
Jr 0.2

>'~ 0.1
o o.oe
I--
< O.06~-
{:E
O.04

0.02

o.ol I I I I I I I I I I I "b,,
~oo 200 soo 400 500 600
DISTANCE (Fm)
Fig. 3. Decay curve for the 6 ~ 4 transition in lS6Gd.
 14 D. WARD et al.

no deorientation occurs in the stopper, since the lifetime is about 8 times faster than
the 4 + level and there are believed to be no transient field effects in copper.
To evaluate the effect o f the deorientation in flight we have applied the results o f
measurements on the first 2 + level in 15Sm by W a r d et al. 52) as described fully in
ref. s). Assuming the g-factors for the 4 + and 6 + states in 156Gd are 0.39 relative to
g = 0.33 for the 2 + states in 15Sm [ref. 9)] we would expect r(A2) = 28 ps for the
6 + and 4 + levels.
The feeding corrections were evaluated from cross sections given by the Winther-
De Boer program. In this calculation we considered only the levels of the ground-state
rotational band up to spin 10 + and we assumed rotational model matrix elements.
The results for the differential cross sections integrated over the solid angle subtended
by the particle counter were a4+ = 26.8 mb, a6+ = 1.79 mb and as+ = 0.049 mb.
The feeding corrections were therefore very small.
The experimental ratios 7s/(Ys + Ym) have been fitted to the appropriate theoretical
expressions 1) using the m e t h o d o f least squares. In both cases the free parameters
were the decay constant of the level and the zero o f the distance scale. These fits
were performed for various trial values o f the deorientation mean lifetime in vacuum.
The best fits for r(A2) = 28 ps are shown as solid curves in figs. 2 and 3. The zero-
distance corrections for the 4 + ~ 2 + and 6 + ~ 4 + decay curves agreed to 2 # m and
were within 6/~m o f that from the extrapolated capacity curve s).
The recoil velocity was determined from the separation of the stopped and m o v i n g
components of both the 4 + -~ 2 + and 6 + --* 4 + y-rays using the accurately k n o w n
energies o f the stopped components to calibrate the spectrum. The values so derived
agreed to better than 0.5 ~o. Their average value was then corrected for the second-
order relativistic effect and for the attenuation caused by the finite solid angle of the
y-detector as described in ref. 1). The adopted recoil velocity was ~'R
= (0.02025___ 0.00010)c.
TABLE 1
Lifetimes for the 4 + and 6 + ground-band levels in 15~Gd
Transition Er Mean life (ps)
(keV) this work previous work

4 --+ 2 199.2 164.0.]_3.0 163 zk 7 a)

170 __+10 b)
6~ 4 296.3 22.8zk0.55 20.5 1.75 a)

~) Ref. s). b) Ref. 26).

The lifetime values are summarized in table 1. The uncertainties include:

(i) the statistical uncertainty as determined from the goodness of the fit including
the covariance o f the lifetime with the zero distance, normalized Z2 = 0.9 for the 4 --} 2
decay, (26 points), and Z2 = 1.3 for the 6 --+ 4 decay, (18 points),
(ii) the uncertainty in the recoil velocity, and
 156Gd L I F E T I M E S 15

(iii) uncertainties in the attenuation factors G 2 and G4 within the stopper.

These errors were combined quadratically. To find the final uncertainty we added
(linearly) this statistical error with the spread in lifetime corresponding to z(A2) = 40
ps and z(A2) = 20 ps which we consider spans the acceptable range for the param-
eter. The final results are given in table t.

4. Discussion

The results have been analyzed in terms of the rotational model as shown in table
2. It is apparent that there is no significant deviation from rotational model behaviour.
TABLE 2
C o m p a r i s o n o f the present reduced transition probabilities with the rotational m o d e l

Transition ~tot a) B(E2)(e2 " b 2) /exp-rot]

exp rot. m o d e l ~J ~ 7o

2 -~ 0 3.952 0 . 9 1 9 0 . 0 2 7 b) (0.919) 0.04-2.9

4 -+ 2 0.229 1.2894-0.023 1.311 --1.711.8
6 --~ 4 0.064 1.475 0 . 0 3 6 1.446 + 2 . 0 z~2.4

a) F r o m R. S. H a g e r a n d E. C. Seltzer, Nucl. D a t a A4 (1968) 1.

b) D e d u c e d f r o m the average o f six lifetime m e a s u r e m e n t s [see ref. s)].

TABLE 3
S u m m a r y o f deviations in the g r o u n d - b a n d B(E2) according to eq. (1)

Nucleus N ~( x 10 3) M e t h o d ~) Ref.

15Nd 90 ~ 5.7 CE 6)
152Sm 90 2.1 4-0.6 RD 8)
3.4 1 CE s)
l 5*Gd 90 2.6 1.0 RD s)
15SEr 90 4 2 RD 9)
154Sm 92 0.64-0.6 RD 1)
156Gd 92 0.6 0.6 RD this work
16Er 92 --1.22 RD 9)
166Er 98 --2.1 4-1 CE 2)
168yb 98 5 ~_4 CE a)
17yb 100 0 0.8 CE a)
172Yb 102 --1.34-0.9 CE 2)
-- 1 :~1 CE 3)
lV*yb 104 --0.5 4- 1.0 CE 2)
--2.30.9 CE 3)
~76yb 106 --1.64-1.0 CE 2)
--3.31.2 CE a)

a) CE: B(E2) value d e d u c e d from the C o u l o m b excitation cross section. R D : lifetimes m e a s u r e d by

t h e Doppler-shift recoil distance m e t h o d .

The experimental values for the reduced transition probabilities were fitted to the
expression
B(E2; 1 4 I - 2 ) = 5B(E2; 2 --, 0)(I020; 1-20)Z[l+o~(IZ-I-2)] 2, (I)
16 D. WARD et al.

using B(E2; 2 --* 0) and a as parameters, with a = (0.6_ 0.6)x I0-3. If mixing with
the fl- and 7-vibrational bands were the only perturbation on the ground band, the
coefficient would be a = (0.1 +__0.1 ) x 10- 3 [of. ref. 17)]. The present measurement is
consistent with this.
In table 3 we have summarized the a-values reported in the literature for rare-,~arth
nuclei. It is interesting to note that all results by direct lifetime measurement (recoil-
distance method) give either zero, or small positive a-values in good rotors (N > 92).
In contrast one notes that where B(E2) values have been inferred from multiple
Coulomb excitation cross sections, the a-values are for the most part negative in
good rotors. At this time however, there is no check of both techniques on the same
nucleus for N > 92, therefore it is not clear whether these negative a-values are
spurious (i.e., due to some effect not included in the Coulomb excitation treatment)
or whether there is some real trend with increasing neutron number.

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