Incomplete fusion analysis of $^{7}$Li-induced reaction on $^{93}$Nb within 3-6.5 MeV/nucleon

TL;DR

This study investigates incomplete fusion processes in $^{7}$Li-induced reactions on $^{93}$Nb within 3-6.5 MeV/nucleon, revealing increased ICF with energy and comparing experimental data with various nuclear reaction models.

Contribution

It provides experimental cross sections for $^{7}$Li + $^{93}$Nb reactions and compares them with multiple theoretical models, highlighting the role of ICF at near-barrier energies.

Findings

Enhanced proton and alpha emission channels suggest ICF contribution.

ICF fraction increases with projectile energy.

EMPIRE model better reproduces neutron channels than others.

Abstract

It is understood from the recent experimental studies that prompt/resonant breakup, and transfer followed by breakup in the weakly bound $^{6,7}$Li-induced reactions play a significant role in the complete-incomplete fusion (CF-ICF), suppression/enhancement in the fusion cross section around the Coulomb barrier. Investigation of ICF over CF was done by measuring cross sections of the populated residues in the $^{7}$Li-induced reaction on $^{\text{nat}}$Nb target within 3--6.5 MeV/nucleon energy region. Measured excitation functions of different channels were compared with different equilibrium (EQ) and preequilibrium (PEQ) models. The enhancement in cross sections in the proton ($\sim$ 20--30 MeV) and $\alpha$-emitting channels, which may be ascribed to ICF, was observed in the measured energy range when compared to the Hauser-Feshbach and exciton model calculations using EMPIRE, which satisfactorily reproduces the neutron channels, compared to the Weisskopf-Ewing model and Hybrid Monte Carlo calculations. The increment of the incomplete fusion fraction was observed with rising projectile energy.