Techniques for the study of short-lived nuclei: From the He jet to radioactive beams

With the increasing availability of higher-energy heavy-ion beams, it is becoming feasible to produce and study exotic nuclei further and further from stability. This has resulted in renewed interest in techniques for studying short-lived nuclei. Older techniques, such as the He-jet recoil transport method [R.D. Macfarlane and Wm.C. McHarris, Chapter II.C in Nuclear Spectroscopy and Reactions, Ed. by J. Cerny, Academic Press, New York, 1974], remain in use and have been incorporated into sophisticated on-line systems capable of handling millisecond activities. Automated radiochemical systems aid in the identification and separation of such activities. Pulsed-beam techniques extend the range downward to even shorter-lived species. Radioactive secondary beams, such as 6He and 8He, can now be produced in sufficient intensity to extend studies even further from stability, particularly on the neutron-excess side. We shall review developments over the past several decades and present recent results from studies with radioactive beams