We have previously used a cluster model, employing a square well nuclear potential plus a surface charge Coulomb potential, in a consistent description of alpha and exotic decay of heavy nuclei. A novel feature of these analyses was the use of a constant depth of the nuclear potential, with the radius appropriate to a particular decay determined by fitting the decay Q value. For alpha decay, the treatment was subsequently generalized using a diffuse well geometry for the nuclear potential, as well as a more realistic form for the Coulomb potential. Here we make a similar generalization for exotic decay, and find several families of parameter values which give a good description of the data. The parameter values of one of these families correspond closely with those which give the best fit to the alpha decay data.

• Received 30 October 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.47.1307