Heavy actinide production from the interactions of sup 40 Ar with sup 248 Cm and a comparison with the sup 44 Ca- sup 248 Cm system

Excitation functions have been measured for isotopes of Bk, Cf, Es, and Fm produced from the interactions of 207- to 286-MeV {sup 40}Ar ions with {sup 248}Cm. The measured isotopic distributions were found to be essentially symmetric with full widths at half maximum between 2.0 and 3.5 mass units. These results are comparable to those obtained in previous studies using {sup 40,44,48}Ca with {sup 248}Cm. The maxima of the isotopic distributions from the {sup 40}Ar-{sup 248}Cm system show shifts, to both heavier and lighter mass numbers, of 0 to 2 mass units relative to the corresponding maxima of the isotopic distributions from the {sup 40,44,48}Ca-{sup 248}Cm systems.