A 45 ns 8+ isomer in the doubly odd150Eu nucleus

In the doubly odd 63 150 Eu87 nucleus a 45 ns 8+ isomer at 589 keV excitation has been identified through (p, 3n) in beam ande \u2013 measurements. The low lying negative parity levels populated in its decay show great similarity to analogous states in the lighter odd-odd Eu neighbours suggesting a spherical shape for150Eu. A spherical shape is also proposed for the isomer which is assigned as (h 11/2 vf 7 2/\u20133 )8+ state analogous to the 9+ isomers known in148Eu and146Eu. The spin change is attributed to the crossing of the half-filledf 7/2 neutron shell atN=86