Persistence of odd-even staggering in charged-fragment yields from 112Sn+58Ni collisions at 35 MeV/nucleon

Odd-even staggering effects on charge distributions are investigated for fragments produced in semiperipheral and central collisions of Sn-112 + Ni-58 at 35 MeV/nucleon. For fragments with Z <= 16 one observes a clear overproduction of even charges, which decreases for heavier fragments. Staggering persists up to Z similar to 30. The staggering appears to be substantially independent of the centrality of the collisions, suggesting that it is mainly related to the last few steps in the decay of hot nuclei.