New levels in Er168: Use of a Compton-suppressed Ge array with the (n,γ) reaction

For the first time an (n, gamma) reaction has been extensively studied using a large array of Compton-suppressed Ge detectors (the TESSA array). The nucleus Er-168 was studied and the data show substantial improvement, in both quantity and quality, over previous coincidence data. Even though Er-168 is perhaps the best studied deformed nucleus, over 250 new coincidence relations and a number of new levels in Er-168 were disclosed, demonstrating the usefulness of this approach. Nuclear physics applications relate to the extension of nearly complete spectroscopy to higher excitation energies and to the study of statistical and chaotic features of the decay of low spin compound nuclear levels.