Populations of excited states and reaction mechanisms in the emission of complex fragments

Cross sections for emission of complex fragments (Z>2) in their ground and excited states are presented for several heavy-ion reactions at bombarding energies above 10 MeV/nucleon. Data presented are mostly on the cross sections extracted by γ-ray techniques. It is shown that a simple statistical approach to associate the ratio, of cross sections for excited states and ground states, to the temperature of the emitter fails to give the expected temperatures. However, it is shown that this is mostly due to the fact that the fragments that γ decay are secondary fragments, produced by the particle decay of the primary emitted complex fragments. A Hauser-Feshbach analysis accounts well for the cross sections and extracted temperatures. 22 refs., 6 figs