Octupole Deformation In Ba-142,Ba-143 And Ce-144 - New Band Structures In Neutron-Rich Ba-Isotopes

New, high spin band structures are established for the neutron-rich nuclei Ba-142,Ba-143,Ba-145,Ba-147, and Ce-144, and levels of Ba-144,Ba-146 extended to higher spins from the study of gamma-gamma and gamma-gamma-gamma coincidence studies in spontaneous fission. Alternating parity sequences connected by strong electric dipole transitions are identified in Ba-142,Ba-143 and Ce-144 but not in Ba-145,Ba-147 to confirm theoretical predictions of stable octupole deformation for N = 86.