Level lifetimes and quadrupole moments from Coulomb excitation in the Ba chain

The chain of Barium isotopes enables us to study experimentally the evolution of nuclear quadrupole collectivity from the shell closure at N=82 towards neutron-deficient or neutron-rich deformed nuclei. The TU Darmstadt group has investigated several nuclei from stable 130,132Ba up to radioactive 140,142Ba with the projectile-Coulomb excitation technique including the use of the Doppler-shift attenuation method (DSAM). Lifetimes of quadrupole-collective states of 132Ba and 140Ba were obtained for the first time as well as the static electric quadrupole moments Q(2+1) for 130,132Ba and 140,142Ba. The results are compared to Monte Carlo shell model and Beyond-Mean-Field calculations.