Abstract
We have developed a method of implanted ion counting in order to determine the absolute branching ratio of the 776.5 keV γ-ray transition in the decay sequence of <sup>82</sup>Sr -> <sup>82</sup>Rb -> <sup>82</sup>Kr.
A 215 MeV beam of <sup>82</sup>Sr was produced at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility and
passed through an ionization chamber that counted and identified the ions before they were
implanted into thin aluminum foils.
Subsequent offline measurements using a Ge detector
deduced the probability per decay of <sup>82</sup>Rb for the 776.5 keV γ-ray in <sup>82</sup>Kr to be
0.1493(38) in agreement with the accepted average value of 0.1508(16). This new technique measures directly the number of decaying nuclei in a given sample and
significantly reduces the dependence on knowledge of the complete decay level scheme.
