Evidence for shears bands in 108Cd -: art. no. 011301

High-spin states were populated in Cd-108 using the Zr-96(O-16,4n) reaction at a beam energy of 72 MeV. Two magnetic dipole bands have been observed, both of which contain weak E2 crossover transitions. Lifetimes for the stronger of the two bands were measured via the Doppler shift attenuation method. The configuration assignment for this band has been determined from comparison with tilted axis cranking model calculations to be pi[g(9/2)(-3)g(7/2)]x nu[h(11/2)(g(7/2)d(5/2))(1)] and pi[g(9/2)(-3)g(7/2)]x nu[h(11/2)(3)(g(7/2)d(5/2))(1)], before and after the nu h(11/2)(2) band crossing, respectively. The deduced B(M1) strengths decrease rapidly with increasing spin after the nu h(11/2)(2) alignment, which is a characteristic behavior of a shears band.