Deconstructing the emission order of protons, neutrons and $α$-particles following fusion in $^{28,30,32}$Si + $^{28}$Si

A high-quality measurement of proton and $α$-particle emission associated with fusion of $^{28,30,32}$Si with a $^{28}$Si target is described. Evaporation residues produced by de-excitation of the compound nucleus were identified by an energy time-of-flight (ETOF) measurement while emitted light-charged particles were identified using the $Δ$E-E technique. Comparison of the experimentally measured charged particle multiplicities and energy spectra with the predictions of the statistical decay model code, GEMINI++, allows one to deduce interesting details of the de-excitation cascade and its dependence on neutron-excess. The impact of modifying the sequence of particle emissions on the average energy and multiplicity is examined.