Population of the yrast superdeformed band in 194Pb
Abstract
The yrast superdeformed (so) band in 194Pb has been populated by means of four fusion-evaporation reactions (184W+16O, 184W+17O, 164Dy+34S, 162Dy+36S) lending to different angular momenta and excitation energies in the various compound nuclei. The yields measured for the so band relative to the total yield of the 194Pb channel do not show any dependence on excitation energies and show only a very weak increase with angular momentum. The feeding pattern of the so band in 194Pb is-compared to similar data for so bands in neighbouring nuclei. All these results can be interpreted by the fission process (an important exit channel for all fusion reactions leading to Pb isotopes) which imposes a very low limit in the angular momentum of the Pb residual nuclei.