Transfer reactions in inverse kinematics: An experimental approach for fission investigations

Inelastic and multinucleon transfer reactions between a ²³⁸U beam, accelerated at 6.14 MeV/u, and a ¹²C target were used for the production of neutron-rich, fissioning systems from U to Cm. A Si telescope, devoted to the detection of the targetlike nuclei, provided a characterization of the fissioning systems in atomic and mass numbers, as well as in excitation energy. Cross sections and angular and excitation-energy distributions were measured for the inelastic and transfer channels. Possible excitations of the targetlike nuclei were experimentally investigated for the first time, by means of γ-ray measurements. The decays from the first excited states of ¹²C, ¹¹B, and ¹⁰Be were observed with probabilities of 0.12--0.14, while no evidence for the population of higher-lying states was found. Moreover, the fission probabilities of ²³⁸U, ²³⁹Np and 240,241,242Pu and ²⁴⁴Cm were determined as a function of the excitation energy.