Decay studies for states in Be9 up to 11 MeV: Insights into the n+Be8 and α+He5 cluster structure

An experiment was performed to study the Be-9(Li-6,Li-6)Be-9(*) ->alpha+alpha+n reaction. This experiment was designed to study the breakup of Be-9 in an attempt to quantify the breakup yield for each of the decay channels (n+ Be-8 (g.s),n+ Be-8 (2+), and alpha+ He-5 (g.s)) from the low-lying states. The results suggest that the population of states in Be-9 from 1.68 to 11.28 MeV can be identified. Branching ratios for each of the breakup channels have been estimated for these states. These results are compared with earlier experiments and with theoretical predictions. They confirm the theoretical claim that the n+ Be-8 (2+) and alpha+ He-5 (g.s) channels increase in importance at higher excitation energies.