Excitation-Energy Dependence Of The Giant-Dipole Resonance Width

High-energy gamma-rays have been measured in coincidence with heavy fragments in deeply inelastic reactions of Xe-136 + Ti-48 at 18.5 MeV/nucleon. The giant dipole resonance (GDR) strength function is deduced from an analysis of the photon spectra within the statistical model. The GDR width-GAMMA is studied as a function of the fragment excitation energy E*. A saturation at about GAMMA = 10 MeV is observed for E*/A greater-than-or-equal-to 1.0 MeV.