Coulomb excitation of a 78Rb radioactive beam

In order to test the feasibility of Coulomb excitation of radioactive projectiles with low beam energies and intensities, they have produced a secondary radioactive beam of 78Rb and Coulomb re-excited it. The beam was produced in the fusion evaporation reaction 24Mg(58Ni,3pn)78Rb at a beam energy of 260 MeV, using the Argonne National Laboratory ATLAS accelerator. The residues of interest were separated from other reaction products and non-interacting beam using the Fragment Mass Analyzer (FMA). The beam leaving the FMA was 78Kr and 78Rbgs,m1,m2, which was refocused onto a 58Ni secondary target. They have extracted a spectrum of γ-rays associated with re-excitation of A = 78 isobars. The re-excitation of stable 78Kr was observed, which serves as a reference. Gamma-rays associated with excitation of 78Rbgs,m1,m2 were also seen. The measured yields indicate that all the 78Rb states are highly deformed