Alpha-particle emission as a probe of nuclear shapes and structure effects in proton evaporation spectra

Emission barriers and subbarrier anisotropies from α decay of Sn* and Yb* compound nuclei are examined in the light of calculations incorporating deformation effects in the decay process. For the Yb* systems deformation which increases with spin is necessary to explain the data. For the Sn* systems the spectral shapes and anisotropies can be explained without deformation. For systems lighter than Sn this probe is not sensitive to the deformation. Energy spectra and angular correlations of evaporated protons from the 52Cr(34S, 2n2p)82Sr reaction were measured in coincidence with discrete transitions. Large shifts in proton spectra were observed when high spin states in different rotational bands are populated. They are interpreted as due to near-yrast stretched proton emission preferentially populating the yrast band by subbarrier protons. Simulations show that channel selected proton spectra cannot be used as probes of deformation. (orig.)