First measurement of 60Ge $β$-decay

The isotone 60 Ge , , was produced and selected among the products of the fragmentation reaction of a 78 Kr beam at 150 MeV/nucleon and a Be target by means of the A1900 fragment separator at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU). Its decay was studied for the first time using the optical time projection chamber. The -decay of 60 Ge was found to be dominated by -delayed proton emission, with a branching of % and half-life ms.