Experimental study of the 7Li(d,α)5He reaction at low energies

In the energy range between 0.45 MeV and 2 MeV, the reaction 7Li + d leading to two alphas and one neutron in the exit channel occurs primarily through a sequential mechanism involving the compound nucleus 9Be* and the intermediate state 5He. Competing mechanisms involving the first excited state of 5He and the state at 11.4 MeV of 8Be, as well as the simultaneous emission of two 4He and one neutron, have only a very minor influence on the reaction yield. The analysis within the R-matrix formalism of the angular distributions of the α1 from the first step, the angular correlation between these α1 and the α2 emitted by 5He, and the elastic scattering 7Li(dd)7Li, allows us to assign the characteristics 3/2- and (3/2, 5/2)+ to the states located at excitation energies of 17.28 MeV and 17.48 MeV of 9Be, respectively.