A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science and Agriculture in fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master Of Science in Physics in the Department of Physics at the University of Zululand, 2017 / Over the last decade, iThemba LABS has had an active research program that focuses on
the spectroscopy of low lying positive parity bands [1–8], particularly the so-called β
and γ vibrational bands, which are traditionally associated with the
first excited Kπ = 0+ and Kπ = 2+ bands, respectively. Through this program,
the nature of these bands has been studied extensively. However, despite this, the microscopic
identity of these bands remains elusive in the transitional rare-earth region. This work
seeks to give an insight on the microscopic nature of these bands by studying the spectroscopy of
162Yb. The data for the nucleus of interest (162Yb) was collected at iThemba LABS, using the 150Sm
(16O, 4n) 162Yb fusion evapora- tion reaction. The γ rays emitted from the reaction products were
detected using the AFRODITE γ ray spectrometer [9] equipped with escape-suppressed clover
detectors. A total of 10 bands have been observed in this work. The DCO and
polarization measurements have not only been used to confirm assignments that were made
by previous in-beam works on well established structures [10–12] - but have also been instrumental
in the assignment of spins and parities for the majority of newly established bands in 162Yb.
Further, the current study has not only confirmed all the rotational structures reported
by previous in-beam works but has also extended the level scheme of 162Yb by
establishing 6 new bands. More importantly, a band built on the above- mentioned Kπ = 0+
excitation has been identified for the first time. In addition, for the first time in
162Yb, we also report rotational levels that form band structures of both the odd and even spin
components of the Kπ = 2+ γ vibrational band.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1676 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Mdletshe, Linda |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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