Determination of absoluteK-internal conversion coefficients of some transitions in Ce¹⁴⁰ by the internal-external conversion method

Abstract

The internalK-conversion coefficients of the 331, 431, 815 and 933 keV transitions following the decay of La¹⁴⁰ have been determined absolutely by the method of comparing internal and external conversion lines measured in a double — focusing beta — ray spectrometers. TheK-internal conversion coefficients of the 4+→2+ 487 keV transition in Ce¹⁴⁰ was used to normalize relativeK-electron and gamma-ray intensities for these transitions. The results obtained are:α _K (331)=0.04432±0.00471,α _K (431)=0.28110±0.02913,α _K (815)=0.00396±0.00043,α _K (933)=0.00282±0.00031.

Multipolarity assignments based on these values are suggested. The 815 keV transition is found to be pure magnetic dipole character in good agreement with the theoretical values calculated bySliv andBand. The 331 and 933 keV transitions are proved to have magnetic dipole character withE2/M1 equal 0.2852±0.0143 and 0.1750±0.0088 respectively. The 431 keV transition was found to have magnetic octupole character. The results obtained are most consistent with the assignment 2+, 4+, 2+, 3+ and 1+ for the 1597, 2084, 2184, 2410 and 2515 keV levels respectively.