Eur. Phys. J. A (2008) 36: 31-36
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2007-10548-5

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Bremsstrahlung emission accompanying the α -decay of ²¹⁴Po

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Università di Messina, 98166, Messina, Italy
² Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra dell'Università di Messina, 98166, Messina, Italy
³ Skobeltsin Institute of Nuclear Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119899, Moscow, Russia
⁴ Institute for Nuclear Research, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, 03680, Kiev, Ukraine

^* e-mail: giardina@nucleo.unime.it

Received: 14 November 2007
Accepted: 7 March 2008
Published online: 10 April 2008

Abstract

We analyze the bremsstrahlung emission obtained by the α -γ coincidence measurements to investigate on the α -decay dynamics of the ²¹⁴ Po nucleus. We performed the experiment using a radioactive ²²⁶ Ra source leading, by α -decays, to the ²¹⁴ Po nucleus, and the apparatus with the Si detector for α -particles, the NaI(Tl) detector able to collect photons with energies up to about 1 MeV. We compare the experimental data with the quantum-mechanical calculations and find a good agreement between theory and experiment for photon energies up to 765 keV. In the experimental data of the bremsstrahlung spectrum one can see the presence of slight oscillations.