A study of high spin shape isomers in the {sup 20}Ne+ {sup 20}Ne system

A complete study of high spin shape isomers for sd shell nuclei has been hampered by the difficulty in using {sup 20}Ne as a target and as a beam. With a differentially pumped {sup 20}Ne target and a {sup 20}Ne beam supplied by the Atlas facility at Argonne the authors recently carried out a search for {sup 40}Ca high spin isomers for a 7 MeV c.m. energy range centered at approximately 1.6 times the Coulomb barrier for {sup 20}Ne + {sup 20}Ne. They obtained excitation functions for binary fission breakup into low lying {sup 20}Ne+{sup 20}Ne and {sup 24}Mg+{sup 16}O states. The {sup 20}Ne+{sup 20}Ne exit channels contain no strongly cross-correlated resonances, while the {sup 24}Mg+{sup 16}O channels have more structures, some of which cross-correlate well.