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The discovery of a new chemical element with atomic number Z=117 is reported. The isotopes (293)117 and (294)117 were produced in fusion reactions between (48)Ca and (249)Bk. Decay chains involving 11 new nuclei were identified by means of the Dubna gas-filled recoil separator. The measured decay properties show a strong rise of stability for heavier isotopes with Z > or = 111, validating the concept of the long sought island of enhanced stability for superheavy nuclei.

Isomeric low-lying states were identified and investigated in the 75 Cu nucleus. Two states at 61.8(5)-and 128.3(7)-keV excitation energies with half-lives of 370(40)-and 170(15)-ns were assigned as 75m1 Cu and 75m2 Cu, respectively. The measured half-lives combined with the recent spin assignment of the ground state allow one to deduce tentatively spin and parity of the two isomers and the dominant multipolarities of the isomeric transitions with respect to the systematics of the Cu isotopes. Shell-model calculations using an up-to-date effective interaction reproduce the evolution of the 1/2 − , 3/2 − , and 5/2 − states for the neutron-rich odd-mass Cu isotopes when filling the νg 9/2 . The results indicate a significant change in the nuclear structure in this region, where a single-particle 5/2 − state coexists with more and more collective 3/2 − and 1/2 − levels at low excitation energies.

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Spectroscopy of Element 115 Decay Chains

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The decay of extremely neutron-deficient 45Fe has been studied in detail by means of a novel type of a gaseous detector employing digital imaging to record tracks of charged particles. The two-proton radioactivity channel was clearly identified. For the first time, the angular and energy correlations between two protons emitted from the nuclear ground state were determined, indicating the genuine three-body character of this decay. The half-life of 45Fe was found to be 2.6+/-0.2 ms and the observed 2p decay branching ratio is 70+/-4%.