C BHATTACHARYA^a,e, M ROUSSEAU^a, C BECK^a, V RAUCH^a, R M FREEMAN^a,  R NOUICER^a ,     F HAAS^a, O DORVAUX^a, K EDDAHBI^a, P PAPKA^a, O STEZOWSKI^a, S SZILNER^a, D MAHBOUB^a, A SZANTO DE TOLEDO^b, A HACHEM^c, E MARTIN^c and S J SANDERS^d

Institut de Recherches Subatomiques, F-67037 Strasbourg, Cedex 2, France

Universite de Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, Nice, France

University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA

Present address: Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata, India

The possible occurrence of highly deformed configurations is investigated in the ⁴⁰Ca and ⁵⁶Ni di-nuclear systems as formed in the ²⁸Si + ¹²C, ²⁸Si reactions by using the properties of emitted light charged particles. Inclusive as well as exclusive data of the heavy fragments and their associated light charged particles have been collected by using the ICARE charged particle multidetector array. The data are analysed by Monte Carlo CASCADE statistical-model calculations using a consistent set of parameters with spin-dependent level densities. Significant deformation effects at high spin are observed as well as an unexpected large ⁸Be cluster emission of a binary nature.

Keywords:  Fusion--fission; saddle-point model.

Pacs Nos.  25.70.Jj