Fusion of 16O+165Ho at deep sub-barrier energies

Fusion cross-sections have been measured for the asymmetric system 16O+165Ho at energies near and deep below the Coulomb barrier with an aim to investigate the occurrence of fusion hindrance for the system. Fusion cross sections down to ~ 700 nb have been measured using the off-beam gamma-ray technique. The fusion cross sections have been compared with the coupled channel calculations. Although the onset of fusion hindrance could not be observed experimentally, an indication of a small deviation of the experimental fusion cross-sections with respect to the calculated cross-sections could be observed at the lowest energy measured. However, the energy onset of fusion hindrance has been obtained from the extrapolation technique and is found to be about 2 MeV below the lowest energy of the present measurement.