Near- and sub-barrier fusion of 20O incident ions with 12C target nuclei

Evaporation residues resulting from fusion of 20O incident ions with 12C target nuclei have been measured for the first time. The cross-section associated with compound nuclei that de-excite via emission of charged particles is extracted. The resulting excitation function is compared with the predictions of a standard fusion model followed by statistical decay code. A significant underprediction of the measured cross-section by the fusion-evaporation model raises the question of whether the fusion cross-section is larger for the neutron-rich projectile or the statistical de-excitation is incorrectly predicted.