Neutron emission cross section for various elements from⁹Be to²⁰⁹Bi have been calculated using the hybrid model code ALICE-91 for proton induced reactions in the energy range 25 MeV to 105 Me V. An empirical expression relating neutron emission cross section to target mass number and incident proton energy has been obtained. The simple expression reduces the computation time significantly. The trend in the variation of neutron emission cross sections with respect to the target mass number and incident proton energy has been discussed within the framework of the model used.

The dynamical cluster-decay model (DCM) is employed to analyse the decay of various compound nuclei (CNs) having mass ACN ≈ 200 such as $^{194}$Hg∗, $^{197}$Tl∗, $^{202}$Pb∗ and $^{210}$Rn∗, formed in $^{16}$O-induced reactions, at common excitation energy E∗$_{CN}$ ∼ 45 MeV. Calculations are made for three decay fragment configurations, i.e., spherical, β$_2$-deformed ‘hot-compact’ and β$_2$-deformed ‘cold-elongated’ to study the effect of deformation and orientation in the decay dynamics. The structure of fragmentation potential and preformation probability of the chosen nuclei get the significantly modified after the inclusion of deformation and orientation effects, besides showing a dependence on themass of CN. Further, an investigation is carried out to see the effect of entrance channel properties on the decay dynamics. For this, three reactions, such as $^{12}$C +$^{182}W, $^{16}$O +$^{178}$Hf and $^{40}$Ar +$^{154}$Sm are considered which form the $^{194}$Hg∗ CN at common E∗$_{CN}$ ∼ 57 MeV. The barrier characteristics, fragmentation structure, preformation probability, barrier penetrability, evaporation residue and fission cross-sections are calculated to analyse the role of the entrance channel in the subsequent decay dynamics. The calculated neutron evaporation residue and fission cross-sections agree well with the experimental data. The most probable fission fragments are identified for the compound nuclei, and the corresponding experimental validation is called for. Moreover, Bohr’s independent hypothesis is tested in view of the survival probability (Psurv) of the chosen reactions.