Excited superdeformed bands in Dy 154 and cranked relativistic mean field interpretation

A Gammasphere experiment has been carried out using the Sn-122(S-36, 4n) reaction to search for excited superdeformed (SD) structures in Dy-154 to investigate the properties of neutron orbitals at superdeformation. Five new excited SD bands have been identified with intensities ranging from similar to 0.7% to similar to 0.03% relative to the Dy-154 reaction channel. Bands SD1, SD3, SD5, and SD6 are interpreted within the cranked relativistic mean field theory by using the effective alignment method. High-N intruder configurations are also discussed for bands SD2 and SD4, based on a comparison of their dynamic moments of inertia, which rise with increasing rotational frequency, with those of similar bands in neighboring nuclei.