Disentangling the reaction mechanisms of weakly bound nuclei

Complete and incomplete fusion cross sections for the 9Be + 144Sm reaction have been measured at near-barrier energies, using the delayed X-ray detection technique. At above-barrier energies these show a suppression of complete fusion for this weakly bound projectile on an intermediate mass target. The suppression factor, attributed to 9Be break-up, was deduced from a comparison of complete fusion yields with coupled-channels calculations, and appears consistent with measured incomplete fusion product yields. At ∼10%, it is considerably smaller than the value of ∼30% previously found for a 208Pb target. Simultaneous measurements of elastic and inelastic scattering permit a clearer picture of the reaction mechanisms.