Aspects of Charge Distribution Measurement for [superscript 252]Cf(sf)

Abstract

Measurements of charge distributions of fragments in the spontaneous fission of [superscript 252]Cf have been performed using a unique detector setup consisting of a typical grid-ionization chamber coupled with a ΔE-E charged particle telescope. We find that the fragment mass dependency of the kinetic-energy-averaged width of the charge distribution shows a systematically decreasing trend with obvious fluctuations. The variation of the widths of the charge distribution with kinetic energy shows a pan-like shape. This is due to the large number of neutrons emitted at the high excitation energies and cold fragmentation at the low excitation energies. Deviation of the kinetic-energy-averaged most probable charge Z[subscript p] from the unchanged charge distribution (UCD), ΔZ, as a function of the mass number of primary fragments, A*, changes from negative for mass asymmetric fission to positive near the symmetric fissions. Concerning the kinetic energy dependence of Z[subscript p] given primary mass number A*, obvious increasing tendencies of Z[subscript p] with increasing kinetic energy are observed.