Lifetime measurement of excited low-spin states via the $(p,p^{\prime}\gamma$) reaction

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using inelastic proton scattering and Doppler-shift attenuation to measure sub-picosecond lifetimes of low-spin states in $^{96}$Ru, demonstrating its effectiveness for isotopes with low abundance.

Contribution

The paper presents a new experimental technique combining DSAM with inelastic proton scattering for lifetime measurements of low-spin states, especially useful for rare isotopes.

Findings

Successfully measured 30 excited low-spin state lifetimes in $^{96}$Ru.

Demonstrated the method's suitability for isotopes with low natural abundance.

Showed the technique's advantage over traditional methods for certain isotopes.

Abstract

In this article a method for lifetime measurements in the sub-picosecond regime via the Doppler-shift attenuation method (DSAM) following the inelastic proton scattering reaction is presented. In a pioneering experiment we extracted the lifetimes of 30 excited low-spin states of $^{96}$Ru, taking advantage of the coincident detection of scattered protons and de-exciting $\gamma$-rays as well as the large number of particle and $\gamma$-ray detectors provided by the SONIC@HORUS setup at the University of Cologne. The large amount of new experimental data shows that this technique is suited for the measurement of lifetimes of excited low-spin states, especially for isotopes with a low isotopic abundance, where $(n,n^{\prime}\gamma$) or - in case of investigating dipole excitations - ($\gamma,\gamma^{\prime}$) experiments are not feasible due to the lack of sufficient isotopically enriched target material.