Coulomb excitation of 2868Ni40 at safe energies

The B(E2;0(+)-> 2(+)) value in Ni-68 has been measured using Coulomb excitation at safe energies. The Ni-68 radioactive beam was postaccelerated at the CERN on-line isotope mass separator (ISOLDE) facility to 2.9 MeV/u and directed to a Pd-108 target. The emitted gamma rays were detected by the MINIBALL detector array. Not only directly registered but also indirectly deduced information on the nucleus emitting the gamma ray was used to perform the Doppler correction, leading to a larger center-of-mass angular range to infer the excitation cross section. The obtained value of 2.8(-1.0)(+1.2)x10(2)e(2) fm(4) is in good agreement with the value measured at intermediate energy Coulomb excitation, confirming the low 0(+)-> 2(+) transition probability.