Coulomb excitation of odd-A neutron-rich π(s-d) and ν(f-p) shell nuclei

A group of odd-mass neutron-rich nuclei with neutron excesses of 9–11 in the 13<~Z<~17 region has been produced and studied by in-beam intermediate-energy Coulomb excitation using an array of NaI(Tl) detectors. The excitation energies of the observed states in ³⁵Al, ³⁷Si, ³⁹P, ⁴¹S, ⁴³S, and ⁴⁵Cl have been measured, and the B(E2) values connecting these states to the ground states have been extracted. For the ⁴¹S and ⁴³S cases the measurements have been compared to particle-rotor and particle-vibrator calculations. The measurements for ⁴¹S are consistent with an interpretation of the low-energy behavior of this nucleus as rotations of a deformed core, whereas for ⁴³S no distinction can be made between the deformed (rotational) and spherical (vibrational) calculations.