Attempt to produce element 120 in the 244 Pu + 58 Fe reaction

An experiment aimed at the synthesis of isotopes of element 120 has been performed using the 244 Pu( 58 Fe,xn) 302−x 120 reaction. No decay chains consistent with fusion-evaporation reaction products were observed during an irradiation with a beam dose of 7.1 × 10 18 330-MeV 58 Fe projectiles. The sensitivity of the experiment corresponds to a cross section of 0.4 pb for the detection of one decay

Observation of enhanced nuclear stability near the 162 neutron shell

In bombardments of {sup 248}Cm with {sup 22}Ne the authors discovered two new isotopes, {sup 265}106 and {sup 266}106, by establishing genetic links between {alpha} decays of the 106 nuclides and SF or {alpha} decays of the daughter (grand-daughter) nuclides. For {sup 266}106 they measured E{sub {alpha}}=8.62{+-}0.06 MeV followed by the SF decay of {sup 262}104 for which they measured a half-life value of 1.2{sup +1.0}{sub {minus}0.5} s. For {sup 265}106 they measured E{sub {alpha}}=8.82{+-}0.06 MeV. They estimated {alpha} half-lives of 10-30 s for {sup 266}106 and 2-30 s for {sup 265}106 with SF branches of {approximately}50% or less. The decay properties of {sup 266}106 indicate a large enhancement in the SF stability of this N=160 nuclide and confirm the existence of the predicted neutron-deformed shell N=162