Recoil ions from the β decay of Sb134 confined in a Paul trap [Study of Recoil ions from the β decay of Sb134 using the Beta-decay Paul trap]

The low-energy recoiling ions from the beta decay of Sb-134 were studied by using the Beta-decay Paul Trap. Using this apparatus, singly charged ions were suspended in vacuum at the center of a detector array used to detect emitted beta particles,. rays, and recoil ions in coincidence. The recoil ions emerge from the trap with negligible scattering, allowing beta-decay properties and the charge-state distribution of the daughter ions to be determined from the beta-ion coincidences. First-forbidden beta-decay theory predicts a beta-nu correlation coefficient of nearly unity for the 0-to 0+ transition from the ground state of 134Sb to the ground state of Te-134. Although this transition was expected to have a nearly 100% branching ratio, an additional 17.2(52)% of the beta-decay strength must populate high-lying excited states to obtain an angular correlation consistent with unity. The extracted charge-state distribution of the recoiling ions was compared with existing beta-decay results and the average charge state was found to be consistent with the results from lighter nuclei.