Dependency of incomplete fusion on target deformation

Abstract

Excitation functions for the evaporation residues ^161,159,158Er (xn), ^161-159Ho (pxn), ^157,155Dy (αxn) and ¹⁵⁵Tb (αpxn) populated via complete and/or incomplete fusion in system ¹⁶O + ¹⁴⁸Nd system at low projectile energies ≈3−7 MeV<em>/</em>A have been measured. In these measurements recoil catcher activation technique followed by offline <em>γ </em>-ray spectrometry has been used. The total measured excitation functions of the evaporation residues ^161,159,158Er (xn) and ^161-159Ho (pxn) produced through <em>xn </em>and <em>pxn </em>channels are found to be well reproduced with the total PACE-4 predictions after subtraction of precursor contributions. A significant enhancement in the total measured excitation functions over their total theoretical predictions for the evaporation residues ^157,155Dy (αxn) and ¹⁵⁵Tb (αpxn) produced in <em>α</em>-emitting channels has been observed. This enhancement is attributed due to the presence of break-up of the incident projectile ¹⁶O into <em>α </em>clusters (i.e., break-up of ¹⁶O into ¹²C + <em>α</em>) and incomplete fusion of projectile ¹⁶O with target ¹⁴⁸Nd at these low energies. A comparison of the present data with earlier measurements indicates that the ICF probability depends on Coulomb factor (<em>Z</em>_P<em>Z</em>_T) along with target deformation (<img src='http://www.niscair.res.in/jinfo/pap_aug_2019_1.gif' border=0>). However, more systematic study on same Z spherical and deformed targets with same projectile at low energy is required to understand the role of target deformation on incomplete fusion dynamics.