IS FUSION INHIBITED FOR WEAKLY-BOUND NUCLEI

Complete fusion of light radioactive nuclei is predicted to be hindere d at near-barrier energies. This feature is investigated in the case o f the least bound stable nuclei. Evaporation residues resulting from t he Li-6.7 + Be-9 and Li-6.7 + C-12 fusion reactions have been measured in order to study common features in reactions involving light weakly bound nuclei. The experimental excitation functions revealed that the fusion cross section is significantly smaller than the total reaction cross section and also smaller than the fusion cross section expected from the available systematics. A clear correlation between the fusio n probability and nucleon (cluster) separation energy has been-establi shed, The results suggest that the breakup process has a strong influe nce on the hindrance of the fusion cross section.