Thermal properties and radiative strengths in 160,161,162Dy -: art. no. 064306

The level densities and radiative strength functions (RSFs) in Dy-160,Dy-161 have been extracted using the (He-3, alphagamma) and (He-3, He-3' gamma) reactions, respectively. The data are compared to previous measurements on Dy-161,Dy-162. The energy distribution in the canonical ensemble is discussed with respect to the nucleon Cooper pair breaking process. The gross properties of the RSF are described by the giant electric dipole resonance. The RSF at low gamma-ray energies is discussed with respect to temperature dependency. Resonance parameters of a soft dipole resonance at Egammasimilar to3 MeV are deduced.