Potential and limitations of nucleon transfer experiments with radioactivebeams at REX-ISOLDE

As a tool for studying the structure of nuclei far off stability the techni que of gamma -ray spectroscopy after low-energy single-nucleon transfer rea ctions with radioactive nuclear beams in inverse kinematics was investigate d. Modules of the MINIBALL germanium array and a thin position-sensitive pa rallel plate avalanche counter (PPAC) to be employed in future experiments at REX-ISOLDE were used in a test experiment performed with a stable (36)Sb eam on deuteron and Be-9 targets. It is demonstrated that the Doppler broad ening of gamma lines detected by the MINIBALL modules is considerably reduc ed by exploiting their segmentation, and that for beam intensities up to 10 (6) particles/s the PPAC positioned around aero degrees with respect to the beam axis allows not only to significantly reduce the gamma background by requiring coincidences with the transfer products but also to control the b eam and its intensity by single particle counting. The predicted large neut ron pickup cross-sections of neutron-rich light nuclei on H-2 and Be-9 targ ets at REX-ISOLDE energies of 2.2 MeV .A are confirmed.