Study of Er171 decay by means of an electron-gamma coincidence technique

The decay scheme of Er¹⁷¹ (7.8 h) has been reinvestigated by means of an electron-gamma coincidence spectrometer and a scintillation spectrometer with a transistorized RIDL-400 channel analyser. A careful unfolding of the high energy region of the gamma-ray spectrum revealed the presence of photopeaks at energies of approximately 371, 404, 543, 572, 618, 675, 738, 796, 869, 910 and 962 keV. The existence of 32 transitions in Tm¹⁷¹ was confirmed. Also, it is proved that the 277, 362 keV transitions are in coincidence with the 210 keV and that the 175 keV transition is in coincidence with the 86 keV transition. We revealed the doubt for the existence of the 166, 210, 236, 277 and 419 keV transitions. From coincidence and single counting rates the followingK-conversion coefficients of the 111, 116, 124, 296 and 308 keV transitions were determined to be: α _K (111)=1.561±0.062, α _K (116)=0.699±0.035, α _K (124)=0.608±0.024, α _K (296)=0.0197±0.0010, α _K (308)=0.0183±0.0009, which give the 116, 124 keV transitions an electric quadrupole character; the 111 keV transition a magnetic dipole character withE2/M1 equal 0.4528; and the 296, 308 keV transitions an electric dipole character withM2/E1 equal 0.0058 and 0.0071 respectively.