At the radioactive ion beam facility REX-ISOLDE, neutron-rich zinc isotopes were investigated using lowenergy Coulomb excitation. These experiments have resulted in B(E2, 2 74,76 Zn and the determination of the energy of the first excited 2 + 1 states in 78,80 Zn. The zinc isotopes were produced by high-energy proton-(A = 74, 76, 80) and neutron-(A = 78) induced fission of 238 U, combined with selective laser ionization and mass separation. The isobaric beam was postaccelerated by the REX linear accelerator and Coulomb excitation was induced on a thin secondary target, which was surrounded by the MINIBALL germanium detector array. In this work, it is shown how the selective laser ionization can be used to deal with the considerable isobaric beam contamination and how a reliable normalization of the experiment can be achieved. The results for zinc isotopes and the N = 50 isotones are compared to collective model predictions and state-of-the-art large-scale shell-model calculations, including a recent empirical residual interaction constructed to describe the present experimental data up to 2004 in this region of the nuclear chart.

With the Q3D magnetic spectrograph of the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratorium at München at a resolution of about 3 keV, angular distributions and excitation functions of the reaction 208 Pb(p,p ) were measured at some scattering angles 20 • -138 • for several proton energies 14.8-18.1 MeV. All seven known isobaric analog resonances in 209 Bi are covered. By the excitation near the j 15/2 intruder resonance in 209 Bi, several new positive parity states in 208 Pb with excitation energies 4.6-6.2 MeV are identified by comparison of the mean cross section to the known single particle widths. The dominant configuration for 27 positive parity states is determined and compared to the schematic shell model.

We report on the first radioactive beam experiment performed at the recently commissioned REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN in conjunction with the highly efficient gamma spectrometer MINIBALL. Using 30Mg ions accelerated to an energy of 2.25 MeV/u together with a thin (nat)Ni target, Coulomb excitation of the first excited 2+ states of the projectile and target nuclei well below the Coulomb barrier was observed. From the measured relative deexcitation gamma-ray yields the B(E2;0(+)gs-->2(+)1) value of 30Mg was determined to be 241(31)e2 fm4. Our result is lower than values obtained at projectile fragmentation facilities using the intermediate-energy Coulomb excitation method, and confirms the theoretical conjecture that the neutron-rich magnesium isotope 30Mg resides outside the "island of inversion."

Neutron-rich, radioactive Zn isotopes were investigated at the Radioactive Ion Beam facility REX-ISOLDE (CERN) using low-energy Coulomb excitation. The energy of the 2(1)+ state in 78Zn could be firmly established and for the first time the 2+ --> 0(1)+ transition in 80Zn was observed at 1492(1) keV. B(E2,2(1)+ --> 0(1)+) values were extracted for (74,76,78,80)Zn and compared to large scale shell model calculations. With only two protons outside the Z=28 proton core, 80Zn is the lightest N=50 isotone for which spectroscopic information has been obtained to date. Two sets of advanced shell model calculations reproduce the observed B(E2) systematics. The results for N=50 isotones indicate a good N=50 shell closure and a strong Z=28 proton core polarization. The new results serve as benchmarks to establish theoretical models, predicting the nuclear properties of the doubly magic nucleus 78Ni.

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