Quasifission competes with fusion, and can suppress the cross sections for formation of heavy elements by orders of magnitude. Its understanding is important both to map out opportunities to synthesise superheavy elements and isotopes, and to understand the non-equilibrium dynamics that controls heavy ion reactions. A review of experimental studies of quasifission is presented, summarising significant insights obtained experimentally over the last 40 years. Possible origins for conflicting results are discussed, to try to identify and/or resolve outstanding discrepancies between different investigations at different times. Work in the last 10 years has highlighted the strong influence of the nuclear structure of the two colliding nuclei on the competition between quasifission and fusion. New approaches to separate the yields of quasifission and fusion–fission are discussed.

准裂与聚变竞争，并且可以将重元素形成的横截面抑制几个数量级。它的理解对于规划合成超重元素和同位素的机会以及理解控制重离子反应的非平衡动力学都很重要。提出了准化实验研究的综述，总结了过去40年通过实验获得的重要见解。讨论了可能导致结果冲突的起因，以试图识别和/或解决不同调查在不同时间之间的突出差异。最近十年的工作突显了两个碰撞核的核结构对准裂变与聚变之间竞争的强大影响。