ELECTROMAGNETIC DISSOCIATION OF U-238 AT 120 MEV/NUCLEON

Electromagnetic fission cross sections of a 120 MeV/nucleon U-238 beam incident on five targets, Be-9, Al-27, Cu-nat, Ag-nat, and U-nat, have been extracted from measurements of projectile velocity fission fragments. The nuclear interaction contributions to the experimentally observed cross sections were determined by extrapolation from the Be target data using a geometrical scaling model and by an empirical decomposition of the fission charge distributions. The results are compared to model calculations in which electric quadrupole excitations have been included.