Development of an Isomeric beam of 26Al for nuclear reaction studies

This paper describes the production and characterization of a 26Al beam comprised of both, its 5 + ground state, and its 0 + isomeric state. The 26Al beam was produced in-flight via the p (26Mg, 26Al)n reaction. The isomer fraction of the 26Al beam was maximized by choosing a bombarding energy of 158.5 MeV for the 26Mg primary beam. The resulting beam had an energy of 120 MeV, a total intensity of 2  ×  10 5 particles/sec, a purity of 98% and an isomer content of 70%. This high-quality 26Al isomeric beam was used to study the 26Al m (d, p)27Al reaction relevant for understanding the nucleosynthesis of 26Al in the Galaxy.