Photon strength functions in Gd isotopes studied from radiative capture of resonance neutrons

The experimental spectra of γ rays following radiative neutron capture on isolated resonances of stable 152,154−158Gd targets were measured by the DANCE calorimeter installed at the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center in New Mexico, USA. These spectra were analyzed within the extreme statistical model to get new information on the photon strength functions. Special emphasis was put on study of the scissors vibrational mode present in these isotopes. Our data show that the scissors-mode resonances are built not only on the ground states but also on the excited levels of all studied Gd isotopes. The scissors mode strength observed in 157,159Gd products is significantly higher than in neighboring even-even nuclei 156,158Gd. Such a difference indicates the existence of an odd-even effect in the scissors mode strength. Moreover, there exists no universal parameter-free model of the electric dipole photon strength function describing the experimental data in all of the Gd isotopes studied. The results for the scissors mode are compared with the (γ, γ) data for the ground-state transitions and with the results from 3He-induced reactions.