Study of the continuum in heavy ion inelastic spectra by light particle coincidence measurements

The continuum in heavy ion inelastic spectra contains, in addition to the excitation of target nucleus states, contributions from pick-up break-up and knock out reactions. In the case of the Ca-40 + Ca-40 collision at 50 MeV/N these contributions are separated and their relative importance assessed by the measurement of light charged particles in coincidence with the inelastically scattered fragments. The pick-up break-up contribution is found to make up less than half of the cross section at high excitation energies, conversely, the knock out process is important.