Breakup of Ne at 11 and 15 MeV/nucleon

The reaction ${}_{}{}^{20}{}_{}{}^{}$Ne${+\mathrm{}}^{54}$Fe at beam energies of 216 and 294 MeV has been used to study the breakup of Ne by measuring the correlations between fast α particles and quasi-elastic projectile-like fragments. The experimental data can be described by sequential decay even for high excitation energies in the primary fragment, where the half-life of the states is comparable to the nuclear reaction time.