Nuclear structure studies of medium-mass nuclei using large Ge arrays

The advent of large Ge arrays and their ancillary detectors has greatly advanced spectroscopic studies of the medium-mass nuclei. These nuclei undergo rapid shape changes as a function of spin, excitation energy and particle number and, thus, provide a unique laboratory to test and refine a variety of theoretical models. Following a brief review of the physics motivation, some of the highlights of the experimental results obtained with the help of these powerful detector systems will be discussed. Among results presented here are the newly-discovered island of superdeformation in the A similar to 80 mass region, and the high-spin band structures in the N similar to Z nuclei. These band structures may be understood in the framework of the conventional cranking models, without the introduction of additional T=0 neutron-proton pairing correlations.