Dependency of incomplete fusion on target deformation

552-556Excitation functions for the evaporation residues 161,159,158Er (xn), 161-159Ho (pxn), 157,155Dy (αxn) and 155Tb (αpxn) populated via complete and/or incomplete fusion in system 16O + 148Nd system at low projectile energies ≈3−7 MeV/A have been measured. In these measurements recoil catcher activation technique followed by offline γ -ray spectrometry has been used. The total measured excitation functions of the evaporation residues 161,159,158Er (xn) and 161-159Ho (pxn) produced through xn and pxn channels are found to be well reproduced with the total PACE-4 predictions after subtraction of precursor contributions. A significant enhancement in the total measured excitation functions over their total theoretical predictions for the evaporation residues 157,155Dy (αxn) and 155Tb (αpxn) produced in α-emitting channels has been observed. This enhancement is attributed due to the presence of break-up of the incident projectile 16O into α clusters (i.e., break-up of 16O into 12C + α) and incomplete fusion of projectile 16O with target 148Nd at these low energies. A comparison of the present data with earlier measurements indicates that the ICF probability depends on Coulomb factor (ZPZT) along with target deformation (). However, more systematic study on same Z spherical and deformed targets with same projectile at low energy is required to understand the role of target deformation on incomplete fusion dynamics