Interaction of F-17 with a Pb-208 target below the Coulomb barrier

The interaction of loosely bound (S-p = 600 keV) F-17 ions with a Pb-208 target was studied at E-lab = 86MeV, below the Coulomb barrier, by measuring the differential cross-section for the quasielastic scattering and the cross-section for the exclusive breakup process F-17 -> O-16 + p. The small reaction and exclusive breakup cross-sections confirm the small reactivity of this system, even at low energy, and indicates that the F-17 small binding energy plays a minor role in the reaction dynamics.