Cross-sections for production of evaporation residues from the compound nucleus⁹⁶Ru* formed by fusion reactions²⁸Si+⁶⁸Zn,³²S+⁶⁴Ni,³⁷Cl+⁵⁹Co and⁴⁵Sc+⁵¹V have been obtained from the yields of their characteristicγ-rays. The measurements span an excitation energy range of 55 MeV to 70 MeV of the compound nucleus. The evaporation residue (ER) cross-sections have been analysed in terms of statistical model for the decay of the compound nucleus. A good agreement is found between statistical model calculation and the experimental evaporation residue cross-sections in all the four cases. It is shown that the average angular momentum$$\bar \ell $$ of the compound nucleus can be deduced from a comparison of the experimentally measured and the statistical model predictions for the ER cross-sections. The validity of this method of deriving$$\bar \ell $$ has been discussed for the case of¹⁶O+¹⁵⁴Sm system.

The availability of precisely measured fusion excitation functions have allowed the determination of experimental fusion barrier distributions. This concept is utilised in ⁹Be+²⁰⁸Pb reaction, to reliably predict the expected complete fusion cross-sections. However, the measured cross-sections are found to be only 68% of those predicted. The large cross-sections observed for incomplete fusion products support the interpretation that this suppression of fusion is caused by ⁹Be breaking up into charged fragments before reaching the fusion barrier.

Fusion cross-sections for the ⁷Li + ¹²C reaction have been measured at energies above the Coulomb barrier by the direct detection of evaporation residues. The heavy evaporation residues with energies below 3 MeV could not be separated out from the α-particles in the spectrum and hence their contribution was estimated using statistical model calculations. The present work indicates that suppression of fusion cross-sections due to the breakup of ⁷Li may not be significant for ⁷Li + ¹²C reaction at energies around the barrier.