“…The N = 80 isotone lies between the lighter barium isotopes which can be readily populated using this method [11] and heavier, neutron-rich isotopes which have been studied as residues from spontaneous fission [12][13][14]. To date, the data on the near-yrast states in 136 Ba come from work using  decay [15], ͑n , ␥͒ reactions [16], Coulomb excitation [17], and light-ion ͑ 9 Be͒ induced fusion reactions [18]. As a result, prior to this work, the highest spin state known was the yrast 8 + state identified by Dragulescu et al [18].…”