For the first time, six-quasiparticle isomers have been observed in the met
a-stable nucleus Ta-180(73)107. Two new high-spin isomers were populated fo
llowing deep-inelastic reactions with a pulsed U-238(92) beam incident on a
thick Hf-180(72) target. Out-of-beam gamma -ray events were collected usin
g the Gammasphere germanium detector array. In addition to the known four-q
uasiparticle isomers, yrast K-pi = (22(-)) and K greater than or equal to 2
3 six-quasiparticle isomers have been observed with microsecond half-lives.
These are the highest-spin isomers observed using the technique of deep-in
elastic excitation. The assignments are compared to predictions made by BCS
and Lipkin-Nogami multiquasiparticle calculations.