Studying the ($^{7}$Li,$^{5}$Li) reaction using STARS

The LLNL group has been pioneering an effort to determine (n,x) cross sections on unstable nuclei via decay probability measurements of compound nuclei formed using light-ion induced ``surrogate'' reactions. To this end an experiment was performed at the 88-Inch cyclotron at LBNL using the STARS (Silicon Telescope Array for Reaction Studies) spectrometer coupled to LiBeRACE (Livermore-Berkeley Array for Collaborative Experiments) to study using the $^{234,238}$U($^{7}$Li,$^{5}$Li x) reactions to populate neutron-rich compound nuclei. Results from this experiment will be presented and its use for determining (n,x) cross sections on neutron-rich nuclei will be discussed. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-48, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under contract No. DE-AC03-76SF0098 (LBNL) and by the NNSA Stockpile Stewardship Academic Alliance program (Yale/Richmond).