Determination of the nuclear level density at high excitation energy.

Evaporation simulations are presented to illustrate the problems associated with the determination of the nuclear level density constant at high excitation energy from evaporation spectra. The methods of using either the total (whole chain) spectra or the difference (from two different initial excitation energies) spectra are discussed. Data from the study of the reaction 701 MeV 'Si+ ' Mo are presented and both methods are used to extract the level density constant. We find that in order to reproduce the slopes of the light particle spectra the level density constant must have a value near