SUPERDEFORMATION AND DOUBLE BLOCKING IN EU-142

A superdeformed band of twenty transitions has been found in 142Eu following the reaction Pd-110(Cl-37, 5n) 142Eu at 160 MeV. This is the first case to be found intermediate to the A approximately 135 and A approximately 150 regions. The J(2) dynamic moment of inertia remains remarkably constant, suggesting that the configuration is pi-6(1)nu-6(3), blocking both proton and neutron band crossings. The band has been estimated to have approximately 3.6% of the channel intensity. This is remarkably intense, and is possibly due to a lowering of the odd-odd configuration by a strong residual n-p correlation.