Development of an Isomeric beam of 26 Al for nuclear reaction studies

This paper describes the production and characterization of a26Al beam comprised of both, its 5+ ground state, and its 0+ isomeric state. The26Al beam was produced in-flight via the p (26Mg, 26Al)n reaction. The isomer fraction of the26Al beam was maximized by choosing a bombarding energy of 158.5 MeV for the26Mg primary beam. The resulting beam had an energy of 120 MeV, a total intensity of 2 × 105 particles/sec, a purity of 98% and an isomer content of 70%. This high-quality 26Al isomeric beam was used to study the26Alm(d, p)27Al reaction relevant for understanding the nucleosynthesis of26Al in the Galaxy.