Production of heavy proton-rich nuclei and kinetic energy spectra of light nuclei in fusion-evaporation reactions*

Abstract The fusion-evaporation excitation functions in the reactions of C/ O + Ho, C + Pt/ Pb/ U, O + Sm/ Pb/ U, Ne + Pb/ Bi, and Ar + W/ Re/ Os are systematically investigated using a combined approach of barrier distribution and statistical theory. The production cross sections of proton-rich nuclides U, Np, and Pu are estimated for the pure neutron and charged particle evaporation. The kinetic energy spectra of neutrons, protons, deuterons, tritons, and alphas from the compound nuclei in the fusion reactions are analyzed. We find that the Coulomb interaction between the charged particles and daughter nuclei dominates the kinetic energy spectra and leads to the Boltzmann distribution. The α yields are comparable with the hydrogen isotopes and are of the same order of magnitude. The shell effect is significant for fusion-evaporation cross sections and particle energy spectra.