Neutron-induced fission of Th232 near threshold

Fission of $^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ was induced by a pulsed beam of monoenergetic fast neutrons. A heavy-ion surface barrier detector was used for the detection of fission fragments. Fragment mass was determined from measured fragment energy and fragment flight time. Fragment mass distribution and correlation of fragment kinetic energy with fragment mass were obtained for neutron incident energies of 1.6, 3.1, and 5.2 MeV. A strong dependence on shell energy is suggested from the increase of the most probable total kinetic energy of the fission fragments with increase in excitation energy of the compound nucleus.NUCLEAR REACTIONS Fission $^{232}\mathrm{Th}(\mathrm{n}, f)$, ${E}_{\mathrm{n}}=1.6, 3.1, \mathrm{and} 5.2$ MeV natural target; measured fragment mass distribution and fragment kinetic energy versus fragment mass.