Transfer reactions in inverse kinematics: An experimental approach for fission investigations

Abstract

Inelastic and multinucleon transfer reactions between a ${}^{238}U$ beam, accelerated at 6.14 MeV/u, and a ${}^{12}C$ target were used for the production of neutron-rich, fissioning systems from U to Cm. A Si telescope, devoted to the detection of the targetlike nuclei, provided a characterization of the fissioning systems in atomic and mass numbers, as well as in excitation energy. Cross sections and angular and excitation-energy distributions were measured for the inelastic and transfer channels. Possible excitations of the targetlike nuclei were experimentally investigated for the first time, by means of $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray measurements. The decays from the first excited states of ${}^{12}C$, ${}^{11}B$, and ${}^{10}\mathrm{Be}$ were observed with probabilities of 0.12--0.14, while no evidence for the population of higher-lying states was found. Moreover, the fission probabilities of ${}^{238}U$, ${}^{239}\mathrm{Np}$ and ${}^{240,241,242}$Pu and ${}^{244}\mathrm{Cm}$ were determined as a function of the excitation energy.