The interaction of 605 MeV 63Cu with 197Au

Binary coincident fragments from the ⁶³Cu + ¹⁹⁷Au reaction at a copper energy of 605 MeV have been studied. Fragment energies were measured and fragment masses determined by a kinematic method. Three types of event are defined by suitable adjacent limits in the mass versus total kinetic energy event space. The angular distributions of cross section, average total kinetic energy and average mass have been determined for each event region. Total cross sections determined in the present experiment are compared to those found at lower bombarding energies. Further information on the sequential fission process has been obtained from measurements of yields of radioactive isotopes resulting from bombardment ofthin and thick targets of Au by 605 MeV Cu ions.     

Fission of238U induced by136Xe for energies close to the Coulomb barrier

Excitation functions and angular distributions have been measured for fission of²³⁸U induced by¹³⁶Xe ions with bombarding energies between 4.5 and 5.9 MeV/N. Structures expected theoretically as characteristic for Coulomb fission have not been observed. The Q-value of ?(7.5±1.0) MeV measured for bombarding energies below 4.7MeV/N, however, appears to be compatible with inelastic scattering (e.g. Coulomb excitation) rather than subcoulomb transfer followed by fission. The total kinetic energy of deep inelastic events at 5.9 MeV/N is consistent with the current knowledge about mass diffusion, but also (for the highest excitation energies) with a fast fission process in the presence of the projectile.     

Variation of total kinetic energy and mass distributions in the fusion-fission reaction of 16O,19F + 209Bi at near barrier energies

Fission fragment mass and energy distributions and their correlations have been measured for the ¹⁶O and ¹⁹F + ²⁰⁹Bi reactions over a wide range of excitation energies ( E ^* = 30-50 MeV). It is observed that in the case of ¹⁶O + ²⁰⁹Bi reaction, the average total fragment kinetic energy, <TKE> is nearly independent of the bombarding energy. However, in the case of ¹⁹F + ²⁰⁹Bi reaction, the average total kinetic energy of the fission fragments shows a peaking behaviour near the barrier. The variation in <TKE> at near barrier energies in the ¹⁹F + ²⁰⁹Bi system seems to be correlated with corresponding strong variation in the variance of the fragment mass distribution. The present results may imply certain dynamical effects leading to compact scission configurations in the fission of ¹⁹F + ²⁰⁹Bi system at near barrier bombarding energies. Received: 9 April 2001 / Accepted: 26 May 2001     

Symmetric and asymmetric fission in electron induced fission of 232Th

We have measured fragment kinetic energies in electron induced fission of ²³²Th for electron energies in the range 7 MeV ≦ E_e ≦ 66 MeV. The relative contribution of the distribution peak associated with high fragment kinetic energies decreases continuously with electron energy. This is interpreted as a relative increase of the symmetric fission yield as compared to the asymmetric fission yield; this fact in turn indicates a non-negligible increase in the average excitation of the fissioning nucleus, with the energy of the bombarding electrons, even above the giant dipole resonance.     

Proton induced fission of <Superscript>232</Superscript>Th at intermediate energies

The mass-energy distributions and cross sections of proton-induced fission of ²³²Th have been measured at the proton energies of 7, 10, 13, 20, 40, and 55 MeV. Experiments were carried out at the proton beam of the K-130 cyclotron of the JYFL Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä and U-150m cyclotron of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The yields of fission fragments in the mass range A = 60–170 a.m.u. have been measured up to the level of 10?4%. The three humped shape of the mass distribution up has been observed at higher proton energies. The contribution of the symmetric component grows up with increasing proton incident energy; although even at 55 MeV of proton energy the shoulders in the mass energy distribution clearly indicate the asymmetric fission peaks. Evolution of shell structure was observed in the fission fragment mass distributions even at high excitation energy.     

Sub-barrier fission fragment angular distributions for the system19F+232Th

The measurements of fission fragment angular distributions for the system¹⁹F+²³²Th have been extended to the sub-barrier energies of 89.3, 91.5 and 93.6 MeV. The measured anisotropies, within errors are nearly the same over this energy region. However, the deviation of the experimental values of anisotropies from that of standard statistical model predictions increases as the bombarding energy is lowered.     

Measurement of fission anisotropy for 16O+181Ta

Anisotropies in fission fragment angular distributions measured for the system ¹⁶O + ¹⁸¹Ta over a range of bombarding energies from 83 MeV to 120 MeV have been analysed. It is shown that statistical transition state model (TSM) with pre-scission neutron correction described adequately the measured anisotropy data. Strong friction parameter is found to be necessary to estimate the pre-saddle to pre-scission neutron ratio.     

Complete fusion in a light heavy-ion reaction from 2.5 to 20 MeV/nucleon

Mass distributions of evaporation-residue-like fragments have been measured using a time-of-flight system for the reaction ²⁰Ne + ²⁶Mg in the energy range of 51 to 400 MeV bombarding energy for ²⁰Ne. A good mass resolution allowed for the separation of the evaporation residues and fragments from two-body reactions like e.g. damped processes. The residue distributions were compared with evaporation calculations. The analysis of velocity spectra measured at bombarding energies of 85–395 MeV showed incomplete momentum transfer for evaporation-residue-like fragments at higher energies. Statistical-model calculations and Monte Carlo methods applied to the calculation of the velocity spectra have been used to extract the complete-fusion cross section.     

Fusion and deep inelastic collisions studied on the Ar + Au system

We investigated the Ar + Au system at two different bombarding energies 201 and 248 MeV. The mass and the energy of the products have been measured at different angles. Mass distributions exhibits two components separated at the low bombarding energy and partly merging into each other at the high bombarding energy. One of them can be attributed to fission following complete fusion, the other one is centered around mass 40 and corresponds to deep inelastic products. These two different mechanisms correspond to different time scales. Angular distributionsd ² σ/dθdM are peaked a little bit forward the grazing angle for products close to the projectile and, when the mass transfer increases, becomes constant. For deep inelastic collisions the mass transfer occurs in the way predicted using potential energy considerations, but the small FWHM and the slight shift of the position of the maximum of these distributions indicates a short contact time. Due to the increase of the temperature, the FWHM of the mass distribution of deep inelastic products increases with the bombarding energy. The mean total kinetic energy studied as a function of the detection angle shows the influence of statistical fluctuations at backward angles. One also observes for this system that the relaxation time connected with the mass asymmetry degree of freedom is larger than the one associated to the energy damping. Complete fusion cross sections measurements were also done at 183, 189 and 195 MeV which allowed to draw the excitation function for this process. Calculations of the fusion cross section using the concept of critical distance are in agreement with the data.     

Polarization of protons from the C(d,p)C reaction

The polarization of protons from the ¹²C(d, p)¹³C reaction has been measured for deuteron bombarding energies between 3.9 and 5.8 MeV. Angular distributions of the polarization for protons leaving ¹³C in its ground state have been measured for laboratory angles between 10° and 135° at several energies in the vicinity of a resonance at 4 MeV in order to determine the effect of that resonance on the polarization. Additional measurements were made at 0.4 MeV intervals throughout the energy range. These measurements demonstrate that the compound-nuclear resonances observed in the cross section do not significantly alter the polarization angular distributions except at back angles. The shape of the observed polarization angular distributions at all energies is quite similar to previous results obtained for deuteron bombarding energies up to 15 MeV.     

Fission fragment anisotropies for 19F +209Bi system

The fission fragment angular distributions have been measured for the system ¹⁹F +²⁰⁹Bi over a range of bombarding energies from 88.0 MeV to 125.6 MeV. The measured fission fragment anisotropies are in agreement with the saddle point statistical model calculations in the above energy range. Combining these data with those available for ¹¹B, ¹²C, ¹⁴N, ¹⁶O and ¹⁸O +²⁰⁹Bi, ²⁰⁸Pb systems, it is concluded that the spherical target plus projectile systems behave “normal” from near- to above – barrier energies. This observation is in contrast to the “anomalous” anisotropies exhibited by the deformed actinide target – projectile systems at near – barrier energies. Received: 5 May 1999 / Revised version: 25 July 1999     

The study of the (α, α'f) reaction at 120 MeV on 232Th and 238U: (I). Fission probabilities and angular distributions in the region of the giant quadrupole resonances

The fission decay channel of ²³²Th and ²³⁸U has been investigated, using the (α, α'f) reaction at 120 MeV bombarding energy. The angular distributions of the fission fragments and the fission probabilities up to around 15 MeV excitation have been measured. No evidence for the fission decay of the giant quadrupole resonance has been found, although for ²³⁸U, a weakly excited structure is seen in the (α, α'f) spectrum at about 9.5 MeV excitation at backward angles with respect to the recoil axis. This effect is similar to what has been found in a (⁶Li, ⁶Li'f) experiment reported recently. The over-all feature of the fission probability for excitation energies above the fission barrier are well reproduced by statistical calculations.     

The study of the (α, α′ f) reaction at 120 MeV on 232Th and 238U: (II). Fission barrier properties deduced from fission probabilities and angular distributions

The fission probabilities and angular distributions of the fission fragments for the (α, α'f) reaction on ²³²Th and ²³⁸U at a bombarding energy of 120 MeV have been measured from about 4 to 14 MeV excitation energy. Evidence for sub-barrier resonances has been found, the negativeparity ones occurring at the same excitation energy where photofission resonances have been observed. The data are analyzed with the two-humped barrier model. For ²³⁸U the data are reasonably well fitted with barriers similar to those known from the literature. For ²³²Th though, the outer barrier parameters are quite different: the height E_B = 6.6 MeV and the width (khω)_B = 1.2 MeV. Also for ²³²Th, introducing an additional mass symmetric and axially asymmetric outer barrier, as was previously found necessary for ²³⁸U, does not result in a good fit to the data at higher excitation energies.     

Medium energy proton induced fission in Tb,La and Ag

Coincidence studies with silicon surface barrier detectors have been used to determine fragment kinetic energies, angular correlations and fission cross sections in the fission of Ag,¹³⁹La,¹⁵⁹Tb and U nuclei induced by 600 MeV protons. Symmetric mass distributions are deduced for Ag and Tb, whereas La shows an indication of a stable asymmetric mass distribution. We find no indication of the Businaro-Gallone point. Fission-spallation competition calculations are used to deduce values of macroscopic fission barrier heights and nuclear level density parameter values at deformations corresponding to the saddle point shapes. We find macroscopic fission barriers lower than those predicted by macroscopic theories. The total kinetic energies at symmetric mass divisions follow closely the Viola prediction.     

Fragment mass and kinetic energy distribution in isomeric fission of 240Pu

Fragment mass and kinetic energy distributions have been measured for isomeric fission of ²⁴⁰Pu. The mass distribution is asymmetric with the average heavy fragment mass nearly equal to that found for ground state spontaneous fission of ²⁴⁰Pu, but slightly lower than for n_th + ²³⁹Pu-fission. The average total fragment kinetic energy appears to be higher in isomeric fission (179.5_?0.7^+1.5 MeV) than in spontaneous fission from the ground state (176.8 ± 1.8 MeV).     

Target mass dependence of the average linear momentum transfer

The average transferred linear momentum in nuclear reactions induced by ³He, ⁴He, ¹⁴N, and ²⁰Ne projectiles on Co, Cu and Ag targets was determined by thick-target-thick-catcher recoil range techniques for bombarding energies between 10 AMeV and 90 AMeV. A comparison with results obtained from fission fragment angular correlations indicates a strong target mass dependence of the linear momentum transfer.     

The effect of nuclear structure in the emission of reaction products in heavy-ion reactions

Study of intermediate mass fragments (IMFs) and light charged particles (LCPs) emission has been carried out for a few reactions involving α-cluster and non- α-cluster systems to see how the emission processes are affected by nuclear clustering. Li, Be, B and α-particles have been studied from α-clustered system ¹⁶O + ¹²C for 117, 125, 145 and 160 MeV bombarding energies respectively. The enhanced yields of near-entrance channel fragment B and large quadrupole deformation of the produced composite ²⁸Si^? extracted from LCP spectra indicate the survival of orbiting-like process in ¹⁶O + ¹²C system at these energies. The same IMFs emitted from the α-cluster system ¹²C (77 MeV) + ²⁸Si and nearby non- α cluster ¹¹B (64 MeV) + ²⁸Si and ¹²C (73 MeV) + ²⁷Al (all having the same excitation energy of ～67 MeV) have also been studied. The fully energy damped (fusion–fission) and the partially energy damped (deep inelastic) components of the fragment energy spectra have been extracted. It has been found that the yields of the fully energy damped fragments for all the above reactions are in conformity with the respective statistical model predictions. The time-scales of various deep inelastic fragment emissions have been extracted from the angular distribution data. The angular momentum dissipation in deep inelastic collisions has been estimated from the data and it has been found to be close to the corresponding sticking limit value.     

Photofission of 238U at the energy of the giant dipole resonance

Photofission of ²³⁸ U by bremsstrahlung photons is studied at four energies of an electron accelerator: 19.5, 29.1, 48.3, and 67.7 MeV. The yields of the fission fragments after the emission of prompt neutrons are obtained using the gamma-ray spectroscopic technique. The mass distributions of photofission are obtained at different upper energies of the bremsstrahlung spectrum. The ratio the symmetric-fission mode to the asymmetric mode is obtained from the mass distribution. The symmetric mode becomes 3–4 times greater than the asymmetric as the excitation energy of the ²³⁸U nucleus increases from 12 to 16 MeV.     

Fragment angular distributions from fission of238U,209Bi and197Au by 140-MeV4He Ions

The fission fragment angular distributions from reactions of 140-MeV⁴He ions with²³⁸U,²⁰⁹Bi and¹⁹⁷Au have been studied. From the anisotropies in the angular distributions, values for? _eff, the effective moment of inertia at the fission saddle point, have been estimated and compared with results obtained at lower bombarding energies. The derivation of? _eff values has included corrections for the effects of incomplete fusion mechanisms on the orbital angular momentum distribution of the fissioning nuclei and for neutron evaporation prior to fission. The results are also compared with heavy-ion-induced fission data for systems of similar fissility. Also, examination of the forward-backward symmetry of the²³⁸U angular distribution substantiates other results which show that the fraction of fission reactions which follow complete fusion of the target and projectile is less than 0.5 for 140-MeV⁴He-ion bombardment of²³⁸U.