Investigating the onset of energy dissipative processes in heavy ion fusion using MANTEIS

¹ Department of Nuclear Physics, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
² Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal Fluminense, 24210-340, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

^* e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 13 May 2026

Abstract

On the path to fusion, nuclei dissipate their initial kinetic energy into internal excitation, but the understanding of how energy dissipation during the collision affects the resulting fusion cross-sections is still limited. To investigate energy dissipation in fusion, we are developing a new detector array that measures charge, mass, angle, and excitation energy of scattered particles, called MANTEIS (Multi-ANgle Time and Energy Identification Spectrometer). This detector performs measurements of reflected flux as a function of angle for a given beam energy. These measurements enable us to determine how the projectile and target charge, mass and kinetic energy distributions evolve as nuclei approach each other — effectively measuring the evolution and mechanism of energy dissipation. Here we present the performance and current status of the new detector array.