Energy levels in iron, nickel, manganese, and copper by magnetic analysis

Abstract

Varied techniques have been employed for the production of nuclei in excited states. The techniques that are suitable vary with the nucleus to be studied and the nature of the particles which are emitted. Ordinarily, the desired excitation can be produced by bombarding the nucleus with light weight nuclear particles. If the incident particle is charged then it is necessary to have a more energetic particle than if the incident particle was uncharged, since it must penetrate the repulsive effects of the Coulomb field of the target nucleus. This effect can be eliminated by using neutrons to excite the nuclei, but if charged particles are used for the nuclear excitation then it is necessary to have some device to accelerate them to high kinetic energies. In the region of light weight target nuclei, a number of accelerators will suffice. The Van de Graaff and the Cockroft-Walton electrostatic accelerators have been satisfactorily used, whereas for heavier target nuclei various types of cyclotrons and linear accelerators have proved useful. In the past few years the development of Van de Graaff accelerators capable of achieving higher energies has led to the experimentation on medium Z nuclei. The Rice Institute 5.5 Mev Van de Graaff generator is suitable for such work and has been used in the experiments to be discussed here to study the excited states in some of the isotopes of iron, nickel, manganese, and copper.