Pre- and post-scission neutron emission in the reaction <SUP>180</SUP>Hf(<SUP>40</SUP>Ar, fission) at E<SUB>lab</SUB> = 216 MeV

Neutron and fission fragment spectra following the ¹⁸⁰Hf(⁴⁰Ar,f) reaction at E_lab=216MeV were measured. The following neutron total, pre- and post-scission multiplicities were extracted: M^tot_n=7.21.3, M^pre_n=2.7 0.9, M^post_n=4.50.9. The average temperature parameters of the neutron spectra are T ^pre=(1.630.16) MeV and T ^post=(1.140.26) MeV. The mean total kinetic energy of the fission fragments is TKE=(16610) MeV and the measured width is _TKE=17.3MeV. The width of the fragment mass distribution is _A=18.3u. The same reaction was analyzed using a modified statistical code which includes nuclear dissipation effects and particle and -ray emission in the equilibrium compound nucleus state and saddle-to-scission transition. The extracted value of nuclear friction coefficient indicates overdamped large-scale fission motion. The obtained total fission time _fiss=9 · 10^-20s is in agreement with other existing data.