Deconstructing the emission order of protons, neutrons, and α particles following fusion in Si28,30,32+Si28

A high-quality measurement of proton and $\ensuremath{\alpha}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{particle}$ emission associated with fusion of $^{28,30,32}\mathrm{Si}$ with a $^{28}\mathrm{Si}$ target is described. Evaporation residues produced by de-excitation of the compound nucleus were identified by an energy time-of-flight measurement while emitted light-charged particles were identified using the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}\mathrm{E}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{E}$ technique. Comparison of the experimentally measured charged particle multiplicities and energy spectra with the predictions of the statistical decay model code $\mathrm{GEMINI}++$ allows one to deduce interesting details of the de-excitation cascade and its dependence on neutron-excess. The impact of modifying the sequence of particle emissions on the average energy and multiplicity is examined.