Two-neutron-transfer reaction mechanism with heavy ions at sub-coulomb energies

The reaction Pb208(O16, O18)Pb206 has been measured at incident energies of 69, 71, and 73 MeV. Calculations free of optical-potential ambiguities and utilizing spectroscopic information derived from extensive sub-Coulomb single-neutron-transfer experiments show that, even at these low energies, the sequential transfer of two neutrons is the dominant process.