Coulomb Excitation into the Backbend Region ofEr164

It has been demonstrated that multiple Coulomb excitation is an effective method for studying levels in the backbending region. Members of the ground band above the backbend in ${}_{}{}^{164}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Er}$ have been excited. The ground-band $B\left(E2\mathrm{}\right)\mathrm{}$ values obey the rigid-rotor relation within ± 25%. A two-band mixing analysis shows that the intersecting bands have remarkably small interaction matrix elements at the backbend, i.e., < 40 keV. This weak band interaction is expected in the rotation-alignment model.