Two-, three- and four-particle exit channels in the reaction of 14 MeV/amu beam of 238U with gold targets

Mica and CR-39 track detectors were used in 2π-geometry to allow coincidence measurements to be made of multiple fragments emerging in the reaction of 14 MeV/amu 238U projectiles on 197Au target nuclei. Targets were produced from sheets of muscovite mica as well as CR-39, both of which were coated with gold by vacuum deposition. These targets were irradiated with a beam of 238U ions, incident normally to the surface. After etching, the heavy fragments in the two-, three-, and four-particle exit channels were identified in respect of their masses and energies. Empirical velocity-range relationships in mica, which are explicitly dependent on mass, were found by fitting the Chebyshev series to the experimental data of the elastic scattering events. A computer program has been developed for identifying the two-, three- and four-pronged events, based on the conservation of momentum and mass. Correlation plots of the final fragment masses and the total kinetic energy loss (TKEL) for the two-pronged events due to elastic scattering, as well as for the three- and four-pronged events, have also been constructed. In addition, the cross sections for binary, ternary, and quaternary fission have been determined. (author)