Nuclear Structure near the Proton Drip-line: A Search for Excited States in 62Ge

Abstract: An experiment to study mirror symmetry in the mass A = 60 region was performed at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in 2020. The fusion-evaporation reaction 40Ca + 24Mg → 64Ge' at a beam energy of 106 MeV was used to populate excited states in 62Ge. The experimental setup used was made up of various detector systems, including Gammasphere for γ-ray detection, Microball in combination with two CD-type Double Sided Strip Detectors to measure evaporated charged particles, the Neutron Shell to observe evaporated neutrons, and the Fragment Mass Analyser with the Ionisation Chamber, to determine the mass and charge of reaction products. Energy and efficiency calibrations of Gammasphere were carried out as part of data processing in this thesis work. Microball and Silicon detectors were used to perform anti-coincidence, and the Neutron Shell detector data was processed to highlight the two-neutron evaporation channel of 62Ge. An alternative attempt to select nuclei of A = 62 using the Fragment Mass Analyser in combination with the Ionisation Chamber was made. A calibration of the Ionisation Chamber was carried out as well as one optimisation of the Z resolution by combining energy loss signals in each part of the chamber to construct energy-loss functions. At the present stage of analysis of this dataset, there is no conclusive evidence confirming any transitions in 62Ge.