High precision half-life measurement of ${}^{147}$Sm $\alpha$ decay from thin-film sources

Abstract

An investigation of the α-decay of ${}^{147}$Sm was performed using an ultra low-background Twin Frisch-Grid Ionisation Chamber (TF-GIC). Four natural samarium samples were produced using pulsed laser deposition in ultra high vacuum. The abundance of the ${}^{147}$Sm isotope was mea- sured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. A combined half-life value for 147Sm of $1.079(26)\times 10^{11}$ years was measured. A search for the α-decay into the first excited state of ${}^{143}$Nd has been performed using $\gamma$-spectroscopy, resulting in a lower half-life limit of $T_{1/2}>3.1\times 10^{18}$ years (at 90% C.L.).

References in corpus (2)

• \textsc{MaGe} - a {\sc Geant4}-based Monte Carlo Application Framework for Low-background Germanium Experiments
• Design and performance of an ionisation chamber for the measurement of low alpha-activities

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Experimental searches for rare alpha and beta decays
• Search for rare alpha and double beta decays of Yb isotopes to excited levels of daughter nuclei