SEARCH FOR 2d(5/2) NEUTRON STATES IN Ni-69

It has been shown that the neutron 2d5=2 orbital has to be included in shell-model calculations to explain the large quadrupole collectivity observed in the Fe and Cr of N = 40 region, probably a new island of inversion similar to the one known for light nuclei around N = 20. Indeed, in these calculations using a large valence neutron space, the position, i.e. the singleparticle energy, of the 2d5=2 orbital is a crucial ingredient. The experiment discussed in this paper aims to determine the $\nu$1g9=2–$\nu$2d5=2 gap using the neutron stripping reaction d(68Ni; p)68Ni which has been performed at GANIL in inverse kinematics. Preliminary results are presented.