Eur. Phys. J. A (2003) 18: 5-8
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2003-10065-7

Short Note

The decay of the new neutron-rich isotope ²¹⁷Bi

¹ Institute of Experimental Physics, Warsaw University, Hoza 69, PL-00681, Warsaw, Poland
² Department of Physics, Oliver Lodge Laboratory, University of Liverpool, PO Box 147, L697ZE, Liverpool, UK
³ Department of Physics, Accelerator Laboratory, University of Jyväskylä, FIN-40351, Jyväskylä, Finland
⁴ ISOLDE, CERN-PPE, CH-1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland
⁵ Instituut voor Kern- en Stralingsfysica, University of Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001, Leuven, Belgium
⁶ Institute of Spectroscopy, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142190, Troitzk, Russia
⁷ Institut de Recherches Subatomiques et Université Louis Pasteur, F-67037, Strasbourg, France
⁸ ORNL Physics Division, TN 37830, Oak Ridge, USA
⁹ University of Munich, D-85748, Garching, Germany

^* e-mail: jkurpeta@mimuw.edu.pl

Abstract

Exotic, neutron-rich proton-induced spallation products of ²³²Th and ²³⁸U obtained from the PS Booster ISOLDE facility have been investigated by $\gamma$-$\gamma$, $\alpha$-$\gamma$ coincidence and spectrum-multiscaling measurements. A new method for the reduction of isobaric contamination enabled to study the unknown region beyond ²⁰⁸Pb for the decay chain A = 217. A new isotope ²¹⁷Bi with a half-life of $98.5 \pm 0.8$ s was discovered and its $\beta$-decay studied. For the first time, a half-life value of $1.53 \pm 0.03$ s for the $\alpha$-decay of ²¹⁷Po was measured.