A new analysis technique to measure fusion excitation functions with large beam energy dispersions.

Peculiar nuclear structures of two colliding nuclei such has clustering, neutron halo/skin or very low breakup thresholds can affect the reaction dynamics below the Coulomb barrier and this may also have astrophysical consequences. In order to have a better understanding of this topic, in the last decade, several experiments were performed. A typical experimental challenge of such studies is the need to measure excitation functions below the Coulomb barrier, having a strong energy dependence, with rather large beam energy dispersions inside the target. This may easily lead to ambiguities in associating the measured cross section with a proper beam energy. In this paper a discussion on this topic is reported and a new technique to deal with the above problem will be proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]