Certain light nuclei are known to have inherent cluster structuring, and the nature of the triple-α structure of carbon isotopes is a subject of active discussion in nuclear physics. Clustering in neutron-rich nuclei is of particular interest as such work could shed light on how neutrons affect α clustering, making 14C a logical candidate for such a study. Cluster structure in 14C was investigated at the University of Notre Dame with the prototype Active Target-Time Projection Chamber (AT-TPC). A 38.2 MeV secondary beam of 10Be was incident on an active target volume containing He:CO2 90:10 gas at 1 atm, in which trajectories of beam particles and reaction products were measured using the tracking capabilities of the prototype AT-TPC. Angular correlations of 10Be and α particles were used to reconstruct kinematics of scattering. Excitation functions and angular distributions were measured in both elastic and inelastic channels, which unraveled a number of resonances in 14C. Spin-parity assignments have been made for the elastic resonances by R-matrix analysis. Evidence of a positive-parity rotational band has been indicated by the 14C resonances. The proposed level scheme and the strong resonance strength observed in the inelastic channel are in line with the prediction by the antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (AMD) method indicating linear-chain structure in 14C. The results also demonstrate unique and powerful potentials of active-target technology in radioactive-beam experiments and are an important step toward the construction of the full-scale AT-TPC for the ReA3 facility at NSCL
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