Lifetime measurement of the first excited 2(+) state in Te-108

The lifetime of the first excited 2(+) state in the neutron deficient nuclide Te-108 has been measured for the first time, using a combined recoil decay tagging and recoil distance Doppler shift technique. The deduced reduced transition probability is B(E2;0(g.s.)(+) -> 2(+)) = 0.39(-0.04)(+0.05)e(2)b(2). Compared to previous experimental data on neutron deficient tellurium isotopes, the new data point constitutes a large step (six neutrons) toward the N = 50 shell closure. In contrast to what has earlier been reported for the light tin isotopes, our result for tellurium does not show any enhanced transition probability with respect to the theoretical predictions and the tellurium systematics including the new data is successfully reproduced by state-of-the-art shell model calculations.