Fusion excitation function studies in the reactions forming ^161,169Tm

Heavy ion fusion near the Coulomb barrier region is a rich source of information on various aspects of quantum mechanical tunnelling phenomenon. Fusion below the barrier is visualised as two inert spherical nuclei tunnelling through a one dimensional potential barrier, considering only relative distance between them, to form the compound nucleus (CN). However an enhancement in the sub-barrier fusion cross section hinted to the role of other internal degrees of freedom in the fusion process. The degree of fusion enhancement is larger for the ¹⁹F + ¹⁵⁰Nd reaction, compared to ¹⁹F + ¹⁴²Nd. Even in this case the rotational couplings of (2⁺ and 4⁺ states) of the deformed target alone could not reproduce the fusion cross sections in ¹⁹F + ¹⁵⁰Nd reaction at sub- and near barrier energies. The rotational effects of the projectile is incorporated to explain the experimental data