High-spin properties of octupole bands in {sup 240}Pu and {sup 248}Cm

High-spin states in {sub 94}{sup 240}Pu and {sub 96}{sup 248}Cm have been populated with Coulomb excitation at beam energies slightly above the Coulomb barrier. In each nucleus a new side band has been identified in {gamma}-{gamma} coincidence measurements and has been interpreted as the lowest-lying octupole excitation. The alignments and Routhians of these bands, as well as the branching ratios of E1 decays to the ground-state bands, are in good agreement with results from cranked RPA calculations. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}