Beta Decay Studies of Short Lived Barium Isotopes

The half-lives and relative intensities of several short lived neutron rich isotopes, with atomic numbers between 54 and 57, produced in the spontaneous fission of californium-252 were determined. This was accomplished from the study of the time variation of the K X-ray yields of these isotopes. A transport system which allowed us to study isotopes with half-lives less than 10 seconds was developed. Mass assignments were made by comparing the experimental values of the half-lives with known values. A beta K X-ray coincidence technique was used to obtain the barium beta spectrum in coincidence with lanthanum K X -rays. A Kurie plot was performed on the spectrum to determine the beta groups. The probable origin of each beta group was determined through a comparison of the relative intensities of the isotopes and beta groups. Four beta groups probably from the decay of Ba-145 were revealed. The end point energies of these beta groups are 3870 (+OR-) 432 keV, 2772 (+OR-) 112 keV, 1894 (+OR-) 58 keV, and 746 (+OR-) 38 keV. The three lowest energy groups have not been observed before.