Fission times of excited nuclei: An experimental overview

An overview of selected recent experimental results on fission times is presented. Evidences for over-damped motion up to saddle point during the fission process of highly excited nuclei have been obtained independently through fission probability, pre-scission multiplicity and direct time measurements. In addition, strong clues have been found for a temperature dependency of friction. Experiments probing transient effects through fission probabilities are presented and the counterbalanced effects of friction and level density parameters are discussed. Promising perspectives for super-heavy stability studies, based on fission time measurements, are presented. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.