The distribution of fragment masses formed in nuclear fission is one of the most striking features of the process. Such measurements are very important to understand the shape evolution of the nucleus from ground state to scission through intermediate saddle points. The fission fragment mass distributions, generally obtained via conventional methods (i.e., by measuring the energy and/or the velocity of the correlated fission fragments) are limited to a mass resolution of 4–5 units. On the other hand, by employing the 𝛾-ray spectroscopy, it is possible to estimate the yield of individual fission fragments. In this work, determination of the fission fragment mass distribution by employing prompt 𝛾-ray spectroscopy is described along with the recent results on ²³⁸U(¹⁸O, f) and ²³⁸U(³²S, f) systems.

Cross-sections for one- and multinucleon transfer reactions, namely, ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ¹³C), ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ¹¹C), ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ¹¹B), ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ¹⁰B), ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ¹⁰Be), ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ⁹Be), ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ⁸Be_𝑔.s.), ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ⁷Be), ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ⁷Li) and ⁵⁸Ni(¹²C, ⁶Li) have been measured at an incident energy of 60 MeV. The reaction cross-section for the corresponding transfer channels in the system ¹²C+⁵⁶Fe have also been measured under the same kinematical conditions. Angular distribution of the elastic scattering cross-section is measured at 60 MeV. The measured elastic scattering angular distributions for these two systems have been analysed using the optical model search code SFRESCO and the potential parameters are extracted. The multinucleon transfer data are analysed to obtain cross-section dependence on the number of nucleons transferred and on the ground state 𝑄-values. The transfer probabilities for multinucleon stripping are extracted. A detailed comparison in the multiparticle stripping and elastic scattering cross-sections between these two systems are made to understand the mechanism of multinucleon transfer and possible role of two extra protons in ⁵⁸Ni target nucleus as compared to the ⁵⁶Fe core.