Revisiting K-isomers in $^{176}$Hf via the $^{176}$Yb($\alpha$,4n) Reaction

High-K bands in $^{176}$Hf have been populated via the $^{176}$Yb($\alpha$,4n)$^{176}$Hf reaction at the WNSL tandem accelerator facility at Yale University using $\alpha$ beam energies of 41, 46 and 51 MeV. For the first time, fast beam pulsing was incorporated and tested with beam on-off periods of a few tens of $\mu$s. Known half lives of different high-K isomers in the Hf region [1] were measured to check the reliability of fast beam pulsing at WNSL for heavy ion spectroscopy. The population of 2-, 4-, and 6-qp isomers in $^{176}$Hf, with $t_{1/2}$= 9.6, 401 and 43 $\mu$s, respectively, is compared at different beam energies. The quest for states and isomers above the 22$^{-}$ 6-qp isomer[2] in $^{176}$Hf will also be discussed.\\[4pt] [1] T.L. Khoo et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 28, 1717 (1972).\\[0pt] [2] G. Mukherjee et al., Phys. Rev. C82, 054316 (2010).