Lifetime measurement of excited low-spin states via the (p,p′γ) reaction

In this paper a method for lifetime measurements in the sub-picosecond regime via the Doppler-shift attenuation method (DSAM) following the inelastic proton scattering reaction is presented. In a pioneering experiment we extracted the lifetimes of 30 excited low-spin states of 96 Ru, taking advantage of the coincident detection of scattered protons and de-exciting γ-rays as well as the large number of particle and γ-ray detectors provided by the SONIC@HORUS setup at the University of Cologne. The large amount of new experimental data shows that this technique is suited for the measurement of lifetimes of excited low-spin states, especially for isotopes with a low isotopic abundance, where ( n , n ′ γ ) or – in case of investigating dipole excitations – ( γ , γ ′ ) experiments are not feasible due to the lack of sufficient isotopically enriched target material.