Study of the gamma spectra emitted in a nuclear reaction - Measurement of the half-lives of the levels 6.13 MeV, 6.92 MeV and 7.12 MeV of 16O

When the energy shifts of the gamma spectrum released during a nuclear reaction are important compared with the detector resolution, the comparison of the experimental spectrum with theoretical spectra allows us to determine the half-life of the initial state of the transition. The calculation of the experimental spectrum implies to know the slowing-down of the recoil nucleus in the matter in order to take into account the Doppler effect. For recoil energies in the range of the MeV and for solid media, the Lindhard theory agrees well with experimental data. The phenomenon of deflection which appears at very low energies must be taken into account by restraining the measurement domain. By choosing an adequate media we can measure half-lives in the domain 1 and 100 fs without needing to take into account deflection effects. We have measured the half-life of the first 3 energy levels of 16O (6.135 MeV, 6.923 MeV and 7.121 MeV), these levels are reached through the reaction 19F(p,αγ)16O with proton incident energies ranging from 0.872 MeV to 2.42 MeV. We have used a coaxial germanium semi-conductor with lithium additions that was connected to an amplification line of Ortec type. 2 kinds of target have been used: calcium fluoride and copper fluoride evaporated on tantalum support. We have obtained the following values for the half-life: (16±4) fs for the 6.923 MeV level, (18±4) fs for the 7.121 MeV level, and for the 6.135 MeV we can only give a lower limit since the gamma decay occurs when the nucleus is at rest τ > 200 fs