https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01655-w
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Fission product mass distribution studies in 35Cl + 176Yb and 35Cl + 165Ho reactions
1
Radiochemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 400085, Mumbai, India
2
Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 400085, Mumbai, India
3
Homi Bhabha National Institute, Anushaktinagar, 400094, Mumbai, India
Received:
13
March
2025
Accepted:
30
July
2025
Published online:
14
August
2025
Many studies on the fission fragment mass distribution in the sub-lead and pre-actinide region have proposed the presence of asymmetric components in this mass region, primarily due to proton shells corresponding to Z ≈ 36, 38. Present studies have been carried out to investigate the mass distributions in the 35Cl + 176Yb → 211Fr and 35Cl + 165Ho → 200Po reactions in the mass region around ~ 200, a transition between the sub-lead and actinide region. Mass distribution studies have been carried out near the entrance channel Coulomb barrier using the recoil catcher technique, followed by off-line γ-ray spectrometry of the fission products. The broad Gaussian nature of the mass distribution in the 35Cl + 176Yb reaction indicates a dominant symmetric fission contribution. The mass distributions for the 35Cl + 176Yb and 35Cl + 165Ho reactions were found to be in gross agreement with GEF (Schmidt et al. in Nucl Data Sheets 131:107, 2016; Schmidt and Jurado in Rep Prog Phys 81:106301, 2018). The GEF model predicts a dominant symmetric fission contribution along with the contribution from the asymmetric fission mode corresponding to Z ≈ 38. The most probable charge, ZP was varied within a range of ± 1.5 units with respect to that obtained using the unchanged charge density hypothesis to obtain the best agreement with GEF. However, a few experimental mass yields in the mass regions corresponding to Z ≈ 50–52 and Z ≈ 54–56 were observed to be still higher (more than ~ 50%) compared to the GEF predictions. A similar enhancement observed in the corresponding fission product yields indicates possible contributions from the conventional asymmetric fission modes, in addition to the shell corresponding to Z ≈ 38.
© The Author(s) 2025
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