Discovery of isomers in dysprosium, holmium, and erbium isotopes with N = 94 to 97.

High-spin states in the 16468Er96 region were studied using 9Be + l60Gd reactions. Pulsed beam conditions were exploited for enhanced sensitivity to delayed &ggr;-ray transitions. New isomers were identified in 16lDy, l63Ho, 162Er, and l65Er. The l62Er isomer is interpreted to decay by E1 transitions to the ground-state band with a reduced hindrance of fv = 33. A plot of fv values for all &Dgr;K = 7, E1 transitions from two-quasiparticle isomers to the ground-state bands of even-even nuclei reveals only a small influence from the dynamic to kinematic moment-of-inertia ratio, which provides a measure of Coriolis K mixing within the ground-state band. This is interpreted to imply that the relatively low hindrances are due to K mixing in the isomer, caused by a combination of Coriolis and octupole band mixing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]