Fragments mass and charge distribution in the light particle accompanied fission of 252Cf

Abstract

The ternary fission mass and charge distribution of 252Cf for different light third fragments (A3 = 4He, 10Be, 14C, 20O, 20Ne and 24Ne) are studied with the use of statistical theory of fission. Two different approaches are adopted to generate the possible ternary fragment combinations: in one case, the Z/A of the products is the same as 252Cf, in the other the finite-range droplet model (FRDM) data are used, creating all the possible combinations also with different Z/A. For the calculation of the nuclear level densities, single-particle level energies of FRDM are also used. When the lighter fragment A3 is 4He, our calculated mass and charge distribution results, at T = 1 MeV, show the larger yield for the deformed fragment combinations which is in line with the experimental observation. Interestingly, for various third fragments, our calculated results at T = 2 MeV indicate that the favorable ternary configuration contains closed shell nucleus either Pb or Sn as the heaviest fragment. In addition, we have compared our calculated ternary isotopic yields with the available experimental and theoretical data.