Shape coexistence in the light krypton isotopes was studied in a series of experiments at GANIL using various experimental techniques. A new low-lying 0+ state, a so-called shape isomer, was found in delayed conversion-electron spectroscopy after fragmentation reactions. The systematics of such low-lying 0+ states suggests that the ground states of the isotopes 78Kr and 76Kr have prolate deformation, while states with prolate and oblate shape are practically degenerate and strongly mixed in 74Kr, and that the oblate configuration becomes the ground state in 72Kr. This scenario was tested in experiments performing low-energy Coulomb excitation of radioactive 76Kr and 74Kr beams from the SPIRAL facility. Both transitional and diagonal electromagnetic matrix elements were extracted from the observed γ-ray yields. The results find the prolate shape for the ground-state bands in 76Kr and 74Kr and an oblate deformation for the excited 2+2 state in 74Kr, confirming the proposed scenario of shape coexistence.
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