Nuclear surface energy coefficients in cluster decay

The influence of different nuclear surface energy coefficients of the proximity potential in cluster decay of heavy, unstable radioactive nuclei is studied using a fission model by incorporating the preformation probability as the penetration probability of the overlapping region. An expression for preformation probability is fitted for preformation values, for which best matching is noted between calculated and experimental half-lives and is used in further calculations of cluster decay of superheavy elements. Half-lives for heavy cluster emission such as Ar, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Ga, Ge and Se, from superheavy nuclei with mass number in the range 252 ≤ A ≤ 294 are predicted using the fitted expression for preformation probability. Predicted half-lives of heavy particle decay of superheavy nuclei compare well with the other prediction for a few clusters. Alpha decay being the predominant decay mode of heavy and superheavy nuclei, half-lives of heavy and superheavy nuclei are also calculated. Calculated half-lives of alpha decay for superheavy nuclei better reproduce the experimental values. (orig.)