High-resolution two-proton stripping to 2p-1h 7/2- states via the 59Co(3He,n$\gamma$)61Cu reaction

The challenge of achieving high resolution in binary reactions involving an outgoing high-energy neutron is solved by detecting the \( \gamma\)-ray decay of populated excited states in an array of escape-suppressed HPGe detectors in coincidence with fast neutrons. The selectivity of the arrangement is of the order of 1 in 1000 and is demonstrated by L = 0 two-proton stripping to 7/2- 2p-1h levels using the 59Co(3He,\(n \gamma\))61Cu reaction at E lab = 22.5 MeV. The observed relative two-proton stripping strengths are compared with large-basis shell-model calculations.