Collective Bands Built on the Proton h_11/2 and the Neutron h_11/2 Orbitals in Odd-Odd I

The excited states of the doubly-odd ¹²⁴I, ¹²²I, and ¹²⁰I nuclei have been studied by using in-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy with the ¹²²Sn(⁷Li,5n), the ¹²⁰Sn(⁷Li,5n), and the ¹¹⁸Sn(⁶Li,4n) reactions at E_lab = 54, 58, and 48 MeV, respectively. Beams, which were pulsed on 1 ns separated by 1.7 μs, were provided by the 14UD Pelletron accelerator at the Australian National University. In the present work, many collective bands with positive-parity as well as negative-parity have been newly identified and their excitation energies have been definitely established. The positive-parity collective bands built on the 10⁺ state in these doubly odd I could be interpreted as being associated with the πh ₁₁/₂νh₁₁/2 configuration.