The encapsulated germanium detector: A new device for multi-purpose application in ?-spectroscopy

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Abstract
The detection of y-rays emitted during the decay of excited nuclear levels has been an extremely rich source for nuclear structure physics from its beginnings, and, it still is. Progress in physics is always tightly connected to progress in instrumentation. Proportional gas counters, NaJ scintillators, crystal spectrometers and Germanium detectors are the milestones of γ-spectroscopy. During the last decade a remarkable progress in nuclear structure physics has been achieved by the development of Compton suppressed Ge detector arrays in Europe and in the US. These new experimental tools led, e.g., to the discovery of superdeformed nuclei (1) and allowed the study of sequences of up to twenty γ-transitions of superdeformed rotational bands in many nuclei, although this rare excitation mode carries only ∼ 1% of the total γ-ray flow. EUROGAM I (Daresbury/ Strasbourg) and GASP (Legnaro) in Europe, and GAMMASPHERE (Berkeley) in the US are staie-of-the-art instruments which exhaust the possibilities of presently available Ge detector technology. Exciting research is going on with these new instruments which will be presented elsewhere.

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