Quasicontinuous decay and properties of superdeformed excitations in^{195} Pb

Superdeformed excitations in {sup 195}Pb were populated via the {sup 174}Yb({sup 26}Mg,5n) reaction, and {gamma}-ray spectroscopy measurements were made with Gammasphere. Analysis of the intensities of the discrete transitions between superdeformed states indicates that the decay out occurs from the favored band of the lowest signature pair. The quasicontinuous spectra associated with the decay of superdeformed bands in {sup 195}Pb have been extracted for both signatures. The onset of {gamma}-ray intensity and the normalized {gamma}-ray intensity of the quasicontinuum decay spectrum are used to set a lower bound of 2.5 MeV at {approx}11({Dirac_h}/2{pi}) for superdeformed excitation energy relative to normal deformed excitations in {sup 195}Pb.