Branching ratios of α-decay to ground and excited states of Fm, Cf, Cm and Pu

Abstract

We use the well-known Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) barrier penetration probability to calculate α-decay branching ratios for ground and excited states of heavy even–even nuclei of Fermium (248–254Fm), Californium (244–252Cf), Curium (238–248Cm) and Plutonium (234–244Pu) with 94≤Zp≤100. We obtained the branching ratios for the excited states of daughter nucleus by the α-decay energy (Qα), the angular momentum of α-particle (ℓα), and the excitation probability of the daughter nucleus with the excitation energy of state ℓ in the daughter nucleus (i.e. Eℓ⁎). α-Decay half-lives have been evaluated by using the proximity potential model for the heavy even–even nuclei. We have reported the half-lives and compared the results with the experimental data. The theoretical branching ratios of α-transitions in our calculation are found to agree with the available experimental data well for 0→+ 0+, 0→+ 2+, 0→+ 4+, 0→+ 6+ and 0+ → 8+α-transitions.