Excited states in ${}^{108}\mathrm{Te}$ have been identified up to spins of $\sim 20ħ$ using the extremely weak $2p2n$ evaporation channel ($\sim 0.2\%$ of ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{fus}}$) from the bombardment of a backed ${}^{54}\mathrm{Fe}$ target with 243 MeV ${}^{58}\mathrm{Ni}$ ions. Channel selection and enhancement was made possible using the power of the GAMMASPHERE array to measure high-fold γ-ray coincidences and the resultant application of multiple γ-ray gating techniques. The observation in ${}^{108}\mathrm{Te}$ of two interleaved sequences of levels with assumed opposite parity connected by enhanced $E1\mathrm{}$ transitions is interpreted in terms of octupole correlations. The current results for ${}^{108}\mathrm{Te}$ make it the closest nucleus to the predicted region of octupole deformation centered at $N=Z=56\mathrm{}$ yet studied to high spin.

• Received 4 September 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.57.R1022