Lifetime measurements using a plunger device and the EUCLIDES Si array at the GALILEO gamma-ray spectrometer

The GALILEO gamma-ray spectrometer, installed at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL), benefits from intense stable beams provided by the Tandem-ALPI-PIAVE accelerator complex and from radioactive beams to be delivered in the near future by the SPES facility. The spectrometer is complemented with a variety of ancillary devices to allow for nuclear structure and reaction studies. The 4 pi Si-ball array EUCLIDES coupled to the GALILEO gamma-ray spectrometer represents one of the commonly used setup for experiments aiming at spectroscopic studies. High-efficiency detection of light-charged particles in a fusion-evaporation reaction guarantees good discrimination of different reaction channels and provides essential information for the kinematic reconstruction. In this paper we discuss a configuration of the EUCLIDES array developed for the lifetime measurements of nuclear excited states populated in a fusion-evaporation reaction. In such a configuration a part of the EUCLIDES detectors is disassembled allowing for the installation of a plunger device in the reaction chamber. The reduced configuration of EUCLIDES provides high detection efficiency necessary for reliable light charged-particle discrimination. We report on the commissioning experiment focused on the Ni-58(Ni-58,3p)I-113 reaction. The lifetimes of 11/2(-) and 15/2(-) states were measured by applying the Recoil Distance Doppler Shift method to be equal to 206(20) ps and 7.9(12) ps correspondingly and were in good agreement with the values cited in the literature. Thus, the combination of the GALILEO and EUCLIDES arrays, and the plunger device has resulted in a powerful experimental setup to determine lifetimes of excited states in neutron-deficient nuclei in the picosecond range