  We investigate the influence of the nuclear deformation on the decay rates of
some cluster emission processes. The interaction between the daughter and the
cluster is given by a double folding potential including quadrupole and
hexadecupole deformed densities of both fragments. The nuclear part of the
nucleus-nucleus interaction is density dependent and at small distances a
repulsive core in the potential will occur. In the frame of the
WKB-approximation the assault frequency of the cluster will depend on the
geometric properties of the potential pocket whereas the penetrability will be
sensitive to changes in the barrier location. The results obtained in this
paper point out that various combinations of cluster and daughter deformations
may account for the measured values of the decay rate.T he decay rather are
however more sensitive to the changes in the daughter deformation due to the
large mass asymmetry of the process.

Nuclear Theory