Dependence of nuclear deorientation on nuclear spin for recoils in vacuum

Time-integral measurements have been made of the vacuum deorientation of the 2⁺ and 4⁺ states in ¹⁵⁰Sm and the 6⁺ and 8⁺ states in ¹⁵⁶Gd Coulomb-excited by 133 MeV ³⁵Cl ions. The ¹⁵⁰Sm results were deduced from γ-ray angular distributions measured in coincidence with backscattered ³⁵Cl ions. In the ¹⁵⁶Gd measurements, a fixed counter array and a sandwich target were used to measure directly the differences between the γ-ray angular distributions from nuclei recoiling in vacuum and the unperturbed γ-ray angular distributions from nuclei stopped in a thick ¹⁵⁶Gd target. The measured deorientation time constants in ps are τ₂(2⁺) = 27±4; τ₂(4⁺) = 14±4; τ₂(6⁺) = 24±3; τ₂(8⁺) = 23⁺¹⁰_?6; τ₄(2⁺) = 12±2; τ₄(4⁺) = 5±3; τ₄(6⁺) = 7.6±2.5. The 8⁺ data were analyzed assuming τ₂/τ₄ = $\text{10}\text{3}$ as predicted by the Abragam-Pound theory for $\text{I ≧ 4}$ essentially independently of the degree of quadrupole admixture. The other results are consistent with this except for the 2⁺ level which shows some quadrupole effect. The present results, which show strong deorientation of high spin levels, are in contrast to earlier work on neutron deficient Er isotopes. In light of our findings we suggest that the failure to observe deorientation in the high spin states in Er is primarily due to anomalously low g-factors associated with the backbending observed in these nuclei.