Extreme nuclear deformations studied at the GASP spectrometer

Very exotic shapes can be assumed for the nuclei at high angular momenta. Their study has become possible with the advent of the last generation high-resolution γ-ray spectrometers. In this talk results are presented on superdeformed nuclei of theA=140 mass region where a detailed spectroscopy in the second minimum is now possible. Hyperdeformed rotational bands, expected in the third minimum, lie at even higher spins where their observation is very difficult from the experimental point of view. We have up to now only weak signals of their presence. The status of the search for hyperdeformation in152Dy is reported.