Abstract
The effects of the nuclear deformation and nuclear shell structure on the heavy-ion fusion reaction are investigated. Evaporation residues for various reaction systems were measured using a recoil mass separator near Coulomb barrier. It is found that the fusion probability is nearly equal to one at the side collision and almost zero at the tip collision between spherical projectile and deformed target. It is also found that the fusion probability strongly correlates with the sum of the nuclear shell energies of projectile and target nuclei, i.e., it increases as the sum of the shell energy decreases. We emphasize the importance of these effects in the synthesis of superheavy element.
