The19F(n, γ)20F reaction

The gamma-ray spectrum emitted following thermal neutron capture in¹⁹F has been studied with curved crystal and Ge(Li) spectrometers. From the 109 transitions assigned to²⁰F, 85 have been placed in a level scheme containing 26 levels. An average gammaray multiplicity of 2.8 gammas per neutron capture was observed. The neutron binding energy was found to be 6601.33(14) keV. The experimental level scheme is compared to rotational model predictions. In addition it is shown that the decay of the capture state is non-statistical and that there is a strong correlation between the strengths of excitation of levels by the (n, γ) and (d, p) reactions. Calculations of the partial cross-sections using the direct capture theory of Lane and Lynn give order of magnitude agreement with experiment.