Penetration of the centrifugal barrier in the fusion of /sup 16/O with heavy targets

Gamma ray multiplicities and rotational band transition intensities have been measured for the /sup 154/Sm(/sup 16/O, 4n) reaction for bombarding energies between 62.5 and 73.5 MeV. It is shown that centrifugal barrier penetration leads to a fairly broad spin distribution of the compound nucleus even at near-barrier energies. The results are discussed in terms of optical model absorption probabilities and parabolic barrier penetration probabilities.