Studies in nuclear spectroscopy using the (γ, γ') and the (γ, n) reactions

The technique of using elastic and inelastic resonance scattering of monochromatic protons for studying the spectroscopic properties of energy levels in various nuclei is discussed. The photons are produced by thermal neutron capture in some metallic elements. The resonance levels are photoexcited by a random overlap between one of the incident γ-lines and one nuclear level of the scattering isotope. It is shown that such (γ, γ') reactions may be used for measuring the excitation energies, the spins, parities and radiative widths of the resonance levels. Also the excitation energies and spins of the low lying levels, the absolute strengths of E1, M1, E2, M2 transitions from the resonance level can be obtained. For unbound levels, the study of the (γ, n) reaction can provide information on the spin, parity, neutron width of the resonance level, interference between various multipolarities, and spectroscopic information on the energy level of the A - 1 isotope. The advantages of using stronger γ-sources from hugh flux reactors is discussed.