In the EXILL campaign a highly efficient array of high purity germanium (HPGe) detectors was operated at the cold neutron beam facility PF1B of the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) to carry out nuclear structure studies, via measurements of γ-rays following neutron-induced capture and fission reactions. The setup consisted of a collimation system producing a pencil beam with a thermal capture equivalent flux of about 108 n s−1cm−2 at the target position and negligible neutron halo. The target was surrounded by an array of eight to ten anti-Compton shielded EXOGAM Clover detectors, four to six anti-Compton shielded large coaxial GASP detectors and two standard Clover detectors. For a part of the campaign the array was combined with 16 LaBr3:(Ce) detectors from the FATIMA collaboration. The detectors were arranged in an array of rhombicuboctahedron geometry, providing the possibility to carry out very precise angular correlation and directional-polarization correlation measurements. The triggerless acquisition system allowed a signal collection rate of up to 6 × 105 Hz. The data allowed to set multi-fold coincidences to obtain decay schemes and in combination with the FATIMA array of LaBr3:(Ce) detectors to analyze half-lives of excited levels in the pico- to microsecond range. Precise energy and efficiency calibrations of EXILL were performed using standard calibration sources of 133Ba, 60Co and 152Eu as well as data from the reactions 27Al(n,γ)28Al and 35Cl(n,γ)36Cl in the energy range from 30 keV up to 10 MeV.
The components, working principle and characteristics of FATIMA (FAst TIMing Array), a fast-timing detector system for DESPEC at FAIR, are described. The core system includes 36 LaBr 3 (Ce) scintillator detectors, a mounting frame for the DESPEC station and a VME-based fast-timing data acquisition system. The current electronic timing circuit is based on V812 constant fraction discriminators and V1290 time-to-digital converters. Gamma-ray energies are measured using V1751 digitisers. Characteristics of the core FATIMA system including efficiency, energy, and coincidence resolving time, as well as limitations, are discussed on the basis of test measurements performed in the S4 cave at GSI, Germany. The coincidence -time resolution for the prompt 60 Co cascade is determined to be ∼320 ps full width at half maximum. The total full energy peak efficiency at 1 MeV for the 36 detector array in the DESPEC setup is 2.9%. The energy-dependent prompt response centroid curve with the current CFD/TDC combination is shown to be smooth; the centroid shift method can be applied for the measurement of half-lives below 200 ps. An overview of applications of the FATIMA detectors as an ancilliary system in combination with other detector arrays during recent years is given. Data on the operation of the detectors in the presence of magnetic fields are presented.
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