Octupole coupling and proton-neutron interactions in 214Fr

Excited states in the odd-odd nucleus 214 Fr have been studied using γ-ray and electron spectroscopy following 208 Pb( 11 B, 5n) and 205 Tl( 13 C, 4n) reactions. Levels were identified to spins of around 36 ħ and excitation energies of ∼ 8.6 MeV. A number of isomeric states have been measured and g -factors obtained using the TDPAD method. At low spin, semi-empirical shell-model calculations appear to provide a good description of the states observed. An understanding of the structure of higher spin states in terms of the probable yrast configurations requires the addition of two units of spin at an energy of around 2 MeV. States with spins around 30 ħ are formed by core-excited configurations, with double core-excitation suggested for the highest states observed. The properties of many of the isomeric states can be understood in terms of multiparticle octupole coupling, with the properties of these states well reproduced by multiparticle octupole-coupled shell-model calculations.