Decay of the neutron-rich isotope 171Ho and the identification of 169Dy.

Abstract

Neutron-rich rare-earth isotopes were produced in multinucleon transfer reactions between $^{170}\mathrm{Er}$ ions and $^{\mathrm{nat}}\mathrm{W}$ targets. On-line mass separation was used together with \ensuremath{\beta}- and \ensuremath{\gamma}-ray spectroscopy in these studies. At mass A=169, the heaviest known dysprosium isotope, 39(8) s${,}^{169}$Dy, was identified. It was observed to ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\beta}}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ decay to the ground state of $^{169}\mathrm{Ho}$ or through a level at 1578 keV. In the A=171 mass chain, a partial decay scheme for 55(3)-s $^{171}\mathrm{Ho}$ was determined.