Deexcitation of nuclei formed near the instability temperature

Fusion-like reactions induced on medium mass targets by 27 MeV per nucleon argon projectiles were studied. The properties of evaporation residues and binary fission fragments, both cold remnants of fusion nuclei, show that highly excited nuclei were produced, near the temperature of instability of nuclear matter. Fission-evaporation competition in the deexcitation of these nuclei is reflected in the ratio of fission and residue cross sections, which provides a way of studying the role of prefission evaporation and fission barriers in the deexcitation process