Exploiting barrier distributions to investigate breakup effects in the fusion of Be-9+Pb-208

The availability of precisely measured fusion excitation functions have all owed the determination of experimental fusion barrier distributions. This c oncept is utilised in Be-9 + Pb-208 reaction, to reliably predict the expec ted complete fusion cross-sections. However, the measured cross-sections ar e found to be only 68% of those predicted. The large cross-sections observe d for incomplete fusion products support the interpretation that this suppr ession of fusion is caused by Be-9 breaking up into charged fragments befor e reaching the fusion barrier.