Electric dipole internal conversion has been experimentally studied for several nuclei in the rare earth region.Anomalies in the conversion process have been interpreted in terms of nuclear structure effects.It was found that all the experimental results could be interpreted in terms of the j ∙ r type of penetration matrix element; the j ∙ ∇ type of penetration matrix element was not important.The ratio λ of the El j ∙ r penetration matrix element to the El gamma-ray matrix element was determined from the experiments to be:
Lu175,396 keV,λ = - 1000 ± 100;
282 keV,λ = 500 ± 100;
144 keV, λ = 500 ± 250;
Hf177, 321 keVλ = - 1400 ± 200;
208 keVλ = - 90 ± 40;
72 keV|λ| ≤ 650;
Gd155, 86 keVλ = - 150 ± 100;
Tm169, 63 keVλ = - 100 ± 100;
W182, 152 keV, λ = - 160 ±80;
67 keV, λ = - 100 ± 100.
Predictions for λ are made using the unified nuclear model.
