| Much attention has been focused on the structure of nuclei far from stability and on the technologies necessary to study them. The increased interest in these nuclei is due to their importance in generalizing nuclear structure, and to the crucial roles many of them play in astrophysical processes. One approach being investigated to reach the driplines is the construction of radioactive beam facilities for nuclear physics research at the drip-lines. One of the more promising tools for research into the structure of these exotic nuclei is the use of Coulomb excitation reactions. This process has the advantage of having relatively large excitation cross sections (in the order of barns) which are directly calculable, as they involve only the matrix elements of the electro-magnetic interaction. Thus, experimental observables can be directly related to nuclear matrix elements. Coulomb excitation is normally inferred by measuring the gamma-rays emitted during the subsequent de-excitation of states. When radioactive beams are used, a background of gamma-rays arising from beta+ decay of the beam is present, which can be intense. The presently available radioactive beams are usually not intense (<10 5) pps, so the gamma-rays of interest are never strong and it is difficult to suppress gamma-rays from background processes. Nevertheless, by exploiting the characteristics of prompt excitation, photons emitted through the Coulomb excitation mechanism can be separated from backgrounds by measuring gamma-rays emitted with appropriate time and intensity correlations with respect to the scattered ions.;This thesis reports on a "proof-of-principle" experiment involving the Coulomb excitation of a low energy (E/A < 1.5 MeV/u), low intensity (∼104 particles per second) beam of radioactive nuclei. We have produced a secondary radioactive beam of 78Rb and Coulomb re-excited it. The beam was produced in the fusion evaporation reaction 24Mg(58Ni,3pn)78Rb using beams delivered by the Argonne National Laboratory ATLAS accelerator, at a beam energy of 260 MeV and an intensity of 20 pnA.;A gamma-ray spectrum has been extracted consisting of transitions associated with re-excitation of A = 78 isobars. We see the excitation of stable 78Kr which is well known and serves as a reference. Gamma-rays associated with excitation of 78Rbgs, R78b4+ , R78b4- , and 78Sr were also observed. There are also indications of the excitation of the A = 75 impurities of the beam. Calculation of the relative yields indicate that 78Rbgs and R78b4+,4- are all very deformed (beta2 ∼ 0.4), and that the isomers have partial alignment of quasi-particles with J = 4 and K = 3 at their bandheads. This incomplete alignment is consistent with calculations coupling g92 particles to a highly deformed core. |
