Change over from compound nuclear fission to quasi-fission

Fission fragment mass distribution has been measured in two reactions to populate compound nucleus 246Bk. Both the target nuclei were deformed. However, entrance channel mass asymmetry of the two systems was on the either side of the Businaro Gallone mass asymmetry parameter. Near the Coulomb barrier, at similar excitation energies, the width of the fission fragment mass distribution was found to be significantly different for the 14N+232Th reaction compared to the 11B+235U reaction. The entrance channel mass asymmetry was found to play a significant role in deciding the fusion process.