Energy-mass distributions in induced fission

Abstract

Measurements of the energy and mass distributions of fission fragments produced by the bombardment of a number of relatively light elements with heavy ions and alpha particles are presented. The results have been interpreted in terms of an approximate version of the liquid drop model which applies to this region of elements. The energies of both fission fragments from every event considered have been measured with solid state detectors, recorded in a correlated manner, and transformed to give mass-total kinetic energy density-of-events distributions. In some cases, data at several bombarding energies have been obtained. Comparisons with liquid drop calculations were made and good agreement was found in the gross features of the distributions, and in the nuclear temperature dependence of the widths.