The primary gamma-ray spectra of 166-Er and 167-Er are deduced from the (3-He,alpha gamma) and (3-He,3-He' gamma) reaction, respectively, enabling a simultaneous extraction of the level density and the gamma-ray strength function. Entropy, temperature and heat capacity are deduced from the level density within the micro-canonical and the canonical ensemble, displaying signals of a phase-like transition from the pair-correlated ground state to an uncorrelated state at Tc=0.5 MeV. The gamma-ray strength function displays a bump around E-gamma=3 MeV, interpreted as the pygmy resonance.
@article{arxiv.nucl-ex/0010019,
title = {Thermal and electromagnetic properties of 166-Er and 167-Er},
author = {E. Melby and M. Guttormsen and J. Rekstad and A. Schiller and S. Siem and A. Voinov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:nucl-ex/0010019},
year = {2009}
}