OCTUPOLE CORRELATIONS IN THE ODD-Z NUCLEI EU-148-151

The effects of octupole correlations in the [ital Z]=63 nuclei [sup 148[minus]151]Eu are studied. The persistency of octupole instability through the transitional region of near-spherical ([ital N][le]85) towards prolate nuclei ([ital N][ge]88) is established and discussed. Intrinsic dipole moments, which are experimentally inferred from the measured electric dipole transition rates observed between parity doublets, are used to characterize the strength of the octupole correlations.