The decay of extremely neutron-deficient 45Fe has been studied in detail by means of a novel type of a gaseous detector employing digital imaging to record tracks of charged particles. The two-proton radioactivity channel was clearly identified. For the first time, the angular and energy correlations between two protons emitted from the nuclear ground state were determined, indicating the genuine three-body character of this decay. The half-life of 45Fe was found to be 2.6+/-0.2 ms and the observed 2p decay branching ratio is 70+/-4%.

The complete three-body correlation pictures are experimentally reconstructed for the two-proton decays of the 6 Be and 45 Fe ground states. We are able to see qualitative similarities and differences between these decays. They demonstrate very good agreement with the predictions of a theoretical three-body cluster model. Validity of the theoretical methods for treatment of the three-body Coulombic decays of this class is thus established by the broad range of lifetimes and nuclear masses spanned by these cases. Implementations for decay dynamics and nuclear structure of 2p emitters are discussed.

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The nuclear structure of 67 Co has been investigated through 67 Fe β-decay. The 67 Fe isotopes were produced at the LISOL facility in proton-induced fission of 238 U and selected using resonant laser ionization combined with mass separation. The application of a new correlation technique unambiguously revealed a 496(33) ms isomeric state in 67 Co at an unexpected low energy of 492 keV. A 67 Co level scheme has been deduced. Proposed spin and parities suggest a spherical (7/2 − ) 67 Co ground state and a deformed first excited (1/2 − ) state at 492 keV, interpreted as a proton 1p − 2h prolate intruder state.

Two new alpha emitters 109Xe and 105Te were identified through the observation of the 109Xe --> 105Te --> 101Sn alpha-decay chain. The 109Xe nuclei were produced in the fusion-evaporation reaction 54Fe(58Ni,3n)109Xe and studied using the Recoil Mass Spectrometer at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility. Two transitions at Ealpha = 4062 +/- 7 keV and Ealpha = 3918 +/- 9 keV were interpreted as the l = 2 and l = 0 transitions from the 7/2+ ground state in 109Xe (T1/2 = 13 +/- 2 ms) to the 5/2+ ground state and a 7/2+ excited state, located at 150 +/- 13 keV in 105Te. The observation of the subsequent decay of 105Te marks the discovery of the lightest known alpha-decaying nucleus. The measured transition energy Ealpha = 4703 +/- 5 keV and half-life T1/2 = 620 +/- 70 ns were used to determine the reduced alpha-decay width delta2. The ratio delta105Te(2)/delta213Po(2) of approximately 3 indicates a superallowed character of the alpha emission from 105Te.