Abstract
The lifetime of an excited state above a weakly populated isomer in the proton-unbound odd-odd nucleus 144Ho has been measured using the recoil distance Doppler shift method. This measurement represents the first differential-plunger lifetime measurement to utilize recoil-isomer tagging. The first excited I[pi]=(10+) state above the two-quasiparticle [pi]h11/2[circle times operator][nu]h11/2(8+) isomer was determined to have a lifetime of [tau]=6(1)ps. Potential energy surface calculations, based on the configuration-constrained blocking method, predict the isomeric state to have [gamma]-soft triaxial-nuclear shape with [gamma][approximate]24. The lifetime of the (10+) state can be understood from these calculations if there is a degree of rotational alignment in this band, with the K value being lower than the bandhead spin. However, the validity of the K quantum number with large predicted triaxiality and gamma softness requires further theoretical study.