Nuclear structure studies of 177,178,179,181Ta using (3He, d) and (α, t) reactions Original Research Article

176,178,180Hf(3He, d) angular distributions and 176,178,180Hf(α, t) spectra were measured using 32 MeV 3He and 30 MeV α particles at the University of Rochester MP tandem van de Graaff accelerator laboratory. Reaction products were analyzed with an Enge split-pole magnetic spectrograph. New nuclear structure information is reported for each of the residual nuclides 177,179,181Ta, and the systematic behavior of bands based on the 7/2+[404], 9/2−[514], 5/2+[402], 1/2−[541], 1/2+[411] and 1/2−[530] bands can now be observed. Some limited measurements of the same reactions on a target of 177Hf, taken to facilitate identification of isotopic impurity peaks in the main spectra, provide useful new structure information and a proton separation energy for 178Ta.