Investigation of the 168Hf electron capture decay using fast radiochemical separation

The (EC + β+) decay of 168Hf, produced by the 156Gd (16O,4n) reaction, has been studied, with high efficiency HPGe coaxial detectors, using on-line measurements carried out with the RACHEL setup, built to investigate the chemical properties of transactinide elements. Off-line measurements were also carried out using catcher collection technique. Energies and intensities of 119 γ-lines are reported among which only two were known in the earlier study of Chu and Reednick. The 168Lu level scheme built on the basis of single and γ-γ coincidence measurements, allows the interpretation of more than 79 γ-transitions, between 38 excited states reported for the first time. (orig.)