Neutron excitations and interactions above the N=80 superdeformed closed shell: Superdeformation in 144Eu

Three superdeformed bands have been observed in the nucleus 144Eu with the GAMMASPHERE spectrometer in its early implementation phase. The reaction used was 122Sn(27Al,5n)144Eu at a beam energy of 142 MeV. All three bands are identified as single-neutron excitations with respect to 143Eu. One band is a confirmation of a previously suggested candidate. It is assigned as the yrast sequence based on the π61ν71 configuration, and is believed to …