EXPLORING ENTRANCE CHANNEL EFFECTS IN THE INTERACTION OF ¹⁶O WITH ⁹³Nb

The excitation functions (EFs) of the number of evaporation residues have been measured in the interaction of a O-16 projectile with a Nb-93 target at energies approximate to 3.5-7 MeV/A using a well established activation technique followed by off-line gamma-ray spectroscopy. The measured excitation functions have been compared with theoretical predictions obtained using the statistical model code PACE4. The EFs of evaporation residues populated through a-emitting channels show an enhancement over theoretical predictions calculated using the fusion-based model code. Incomplete fusion dynamics is found to play an important role in heavy-ion-induced reactions at energies as low as 3.5-7 MeV/A. To have more exclusive information about ICF dynamics, the strength of ICF in terms of the incomplete-fusion fraction (F-ICF) is also deduced and correlated with various entrance channel parameters. It is found that besides projectile energy, projectile structure and mass asymmetry strongly affect the ICF dynamics in the considered energy range.