Fission Cross Sections and Fission‐Fragment Mass Yields via the Surrogate Reaction Method

The surrogate reaction method is a powerful tool to infer neutron‐induced data of short‐lived nuclei. After a short overview of the experimental techniques employed in the present surrogate experiments, we will concentrate on a recent measurement to determine neutron‐induced fission cross sections for the actinides 242,243Cm and 241Am. The latest direct neutron‐induced measurement for the 243Cm fission cross section is questioned by our results, since there are differences of more than 60% in the 0.7 to 7 MeV neutron energy range. Our experimental set‐up has also enabled us to measure for the first time the fission fragment “pseudo‐mass” distributions of 243,244,245Cm and 242Am compound nuclei in the excitation energy range from a few MeV to about 25 MeV.