Nuclear orientation study of the decay of 171Lu

The levels and γ-ray transitions in ¹⁷¹Yb have been studied by radioactive decay of oriented ¹⁷¹ Lu. The orientation was produced using the hyperfine field in ferromagnetic gadolinium to polarize an ensemble of ¹⁷¹Lu nuclei at a temperature of 14mK. The directional distribution of the γ-rays was measured using high-resolution Ge(Li) detectors. Anisotropies of 30 γ-rays in ¹⁷¹Yb were measured. Multipole mixing ratios were deduced for most of the mixed γ-ray transitions and unambiguous spin assignments were made for several levels.The energy and structure of the rotational band levels, reduced E2 and M1 transition probabilities and E2/M1 mixing ratios were calculated using the semi-microscopic quasiparticle-phonon model with a Coriolis interaction. In general, good agreement is obtained between the theoretical predictions and experimental results.