Proton Transfer Reactions Studied Using the Versatile Array of Neutron Detectors at Low Energy (VANDLE)

Single nucleon transfer reactions are powerful tools for the study of nuclear structure. The spectroscopic properties of unstable nuclei help to constrain nuclear structure models for more exotic nuclei. In inverse kinematics, proton transfer reactions, such as (d, n), may be used to study the properties of short-lived radioactive ion beams (RIBs). By measuring the outgoing neutron, it is possible to extract spectroscopic information about the proton states of the recoil nucleus in much the same way as probing the neutron states of the recoil using neutron transfer (d,p). With the development of new accelerator facilities, such as the Facility for Radioactive Ion Beams (FRIB) in the U.S., comes the need for new spectroscopic tools for use with RIBs.The versatile array of neutron detectors at low energy (VANDLE) is an array of plastic scintillator bars that are used to detect neutrons using a time-of-flight method. Stable beams of ¹²C and ¹⁶O were used to study proton transfer reactions in inverse kinematics using VANDLE at the University of Notre Dame. ¹²C(d, n) was measured at eight energies between equivalent deuteron energies of 3:1 MeV and 7:0 MeV while ¹⁶O(d, n) was measured at a single energy of 8.0 MeV . This work was the first successful proton transfer measurement using VANDLE. Angular distributions are shown for transfer to the ground state of ¹³N at all eight energies and to the first excited state at the higher beam energies. Excitation functions for ¹²C(d; n) are shown for center-of-mass angles between 3° and 70°. The angular distributions for population of the ground state and first excited state of ¹⁷F are also shown. Developments of low energy proton transfer experiments in inverse kinematics are discussed and angular distributions are compared to literature.