First Spectroscopic Study Of V-63 At The N=40 Island Of Inversion

The low-lying level structure of V-63 was studied for the first time by the inelastic proton scattering and the proton knock-out reaction in inverse kinematics. The comparison of the newly observed gamma-ray transitions at 696(8) keV and 889(16) keV with our shell-model calculations using the Lenzi-Nowacki-Poves-Sieja interaction established two excited states proposed to be the first 11/2(-) and 9/2(-) levels. The (p, p') excitation cross sections were analyzed by the coupled channel formalism assuming pure quadrupole as well as quadrupole+hexadecapole deformations. This resulted in large deformation parameters placing V-63 in the island of inversion located below Ni-68.