Very extended shapes in 108Cd: evidence for the occupation of 'hyper-intruder' orbitals

High-spin states in {sup 108}Cd were studied following the reaction {sup 64} Ni({sup 48}Ca,4n) at a beam energy of 207 MeV. Gamma rays were detected using the Gammasphere array. Two rotational bands have been observed at very high angular momentum. Measurements of fractional Doppler shifts yielded lower limits for the quadrupole moments and showed that the observed structures are at least as deformed as the superdeformed structures e.g. in the A {approx} 150 region, and possibly exceed a 2:1 axis ratio. The existence of very extended shapes has been predicted by cranked Strutinsky calculations, and recent projected shell model calculations suggest that the {pi}i{sub 13/2}hyper-intruder orbital is occupied in these newly observed bands