Excited states in the neutron-deficient nuclei 197,199,201Rn

Excited states of the extremely neutron-deficient radon isotopes with N = 111, 113, 115 have been studied for the first time in a series of in-beam experiments performed at the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyvaskyla. The reactions used were: Sn-118(Kr-82, 3n)Rn-197, Sn-120(Kr-82, 3n)Rn-199, Sm-150(Cr-52, 3n)Rn-199, and Sn-122(Kr-82, 3n)Rn-201. The gamma rays emitted from excited states in the different isotopes were identified using the recoil-alpha-decay tagging technique. The estimated cross section for the production of Rn-197(m) was 7(3) nb, which is the lowest cross section reported so far for an in-beam study. The energies of the (17/2(+)) levels built on the isomeric (13/2(+)) states in Rn-197,Rn-199,Rn-201 indicate a transition from an anharmonic vibrational structure toward a rotational structure at low spins for these nuclei. However, the transition is not as sharp as predicted by theory.