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The study of nuclei far from stability elucidates the evolution of nuclear shell structure, and also affects estimates of heavy element nucleosynthesis in supernova explosions. Measurement of transfer reactions in inverse kinematics with radioactive ion beams is a powerful technique for these types of studies. Rare isotope beams often have relatively low intensities, and this places difficult requirements on the detection systems for reaction products. The detectors must provide large solid angle coverage in the laboratory along with good position and energy resolution. The Super ORRUBA detector array has been developed for such measurements and is comprised of 18 double-sided, nonresistive silicon strip detectors. This configuration features low thresholds and improved resolution over detectors employing charge division. As a first implementation of this system, the 80Ge(d,p)81Ge neutron transfer reaction in inverse kinematics was measured at HRIBF at ORNL, to determine the properties of levels in 81Ge.

The astrophysical rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) is believed to have produced approximately half of the nuclear species more massive than Fe. Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about the structure of the majority of the extremely neutron-rich nuclei involved in the reaction flow. At exotic beam facilities such as the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility (HRIBF), measurements with accelerated beams of fission fragments have provided some of the first spectroscopic information on many r-process nuclei. The new SuperORRUBA (Oak Ridge Rutgers University Barrel Array) detector has been constructed at the HRIBF to study such nuclei, and first results are presented.