Eur. Phys. J. A (2014) 50: 158
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2014-14158-x

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

High-resolution two-proton stripping to 2p-1h 7/2^- states via the ⁵⁹Co(³He,n)⁶¹Cu reaction

¹ Department of Physics, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, 7602, Matieland, South Africa
² iThemba LABS, National Research Foundation, PO Box 722, 7129, Somerset West, South Africa
³ Department of Physics, University of the Western Cape, ZA-7535, Bellville, South Africa
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy and National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University East Lansing, 48824-1321, Michigan, USA
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, 7700, Rondebosch, South Africa

^* e-mail: papka@sun.ac.za

Received: 16 September 2014
Accepted: 2 October 2014
Published online: 28 October 2014

Abstract

The challenge of achieving high resolution in binary reactions involving an outgoing high-energy neutron is solved by detecting the -ray decay of populated excited states in an array of escape-suppressed HPGe detectors in coincidence with fast neutrons. The selectivity of the arrangement is of the order of 1 in 1000 and is demonstrated by L = 0 two-proton stripping to 7/2^- 2p-1h levels using the ⁵⁹Co(³He,)⁶¹Cu reaction at E _lab = 22.5 MeV. The observed relative two-proton stripping strengths are compared with large-basis shell-model calculations.