Precision lifetime measurements of exotic nuclei based on Doppler-shift techniques

A recent progress in precision lifetime measurements of exotic nuclei at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), Michigan State University is presented. The Recoil Distance Doppler-shift (RDDS) technique has been applied to nuclear reactions involving intermediate-energy rare isotope (RI) beams, to determine absolute transition strengths between nuclear states model independently from level lifetimes of interest. As such an example, recent lifetime measurements of the first 2⁺ states in the neutron-rich ^62,64,66Fe isotopes at and around N=40 are introduced. The experiment was performed at the Coupled Cyclotron Facility at NSCL using a unique combination of several experimental instruments; the Segmented Germanium Array (SeGA), the plunger device, and the S800 spectrograph. The reduced E2 transition probabilities B(E2) are determined directly from the measured lifetimes. The observed trend of B(E2) clearly demonstrates that an enhanced collectivity persists in ⁶⁶Fe despite the harmonic-oscillator magic number N=40. The present results are also discussed in comparison with the large-scale shell model calculations, pointing to a possible extension of the deformation region beyond N=40.