Isomer Studies for Nuclei near the Proton Drip Line in the Mass 130-160 Region

This report details the status of an experimental research programme which has studied isomeric states in the mass 130-160 region of the nuclear chart. Several new isomers have been established and characterised near the proton drip Une using a recoil isomer tagging technique at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The latest experiments have been performed with a modified setup where the standard GREAT focal-plane double-sided silicon-strip detector was changed to a dual multi-wire proportional-counter arrangement. This new setup has improved capability for short-lived isomer studies where high focal-plane rates can be tolerated. The results of key recent experiments for nuclei situated above (153Yb,152Tm) and below (136Pm,142Tb) the N=82 shell gap were presented along with an interpretation for the isomers. Finally, the future prospects of the technique, using an isomer-tagged differential-plunger setup, were discussed. This technique will be capable of establishing the deformation of the states above the isomers and will aid in the process of assigning underlying single-particle configurations to the isomeric states