Abstract
The isomeric structure of the neutron deficient nucleus Pr-132, located in the rare-earth region of the nuclear chart, has been studied with the Mo-98(Ar-40,5pn)Pr-132 reaction at beam energies of 150, 158 and 165 MeV. The experiment was performed at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland where the Ar-40 beam was accelerated onto the target by the K130 cyclotron. The JUROGAM II HPGe detector array was employed in conjunction with the RITU gas-filled recoil separator. The focal-plane chamber housed a multi wire proportional counter and a position-sensitive silicon strip detector used for the implantation and identification of recoiling nuclei. The recoil-isomer tagging technique was used to correlate the delayed decays, measured in the Planar and Clover detectors of the GREAT spectrometer, with the known prompt transitions in Pr-132. Two new delayed transitions have been observed at energies of 102 and 118 keV. The corresponding X ray peaks are consistent with Pr K-alpha and K-beta X rays with energies of 35.63 and 40.91 keV, respectively. The half-life of the newly established isomeric state, from which the 102 and 118-keV transitions proceed, has been measured to be 2.5(3) mu s.