Background: Clustering phenomena in NZ nuclei provide an opportunity to understand the interplay between cluster and nucleon degrees of freedom. Purpose: To study resonances in the 18O spectrum, populated in 14C+ elastic scattering. Method: The thick target inverse kinematics technique was used to measure the excitation function for the 14C+ elastic scattering. A 42-MeV 14C beam was used to populate states of excitation energy up to 14.9 MeV in 18O. The analysis was performed using a multilevel, multichannel R-matrix approach. Results: Detailed spectroscopic information, including spin parities, partial - and neutron-decay widths and dimensionless reduced widths, was obtained for excited states in 18O between 8 and 14.9 MeV in excitation energy. Cluster-nucleon configuration interaction model calculations of the same quantities are performed and compared to the experimental results. Conclusions: Strong fragmentation of large -cluster strengths is observed in the spectrum of 18O, making the -cluster structure of 18O quite different from the pattern of known quasirotational bands of alternating parity that are characteristic of N=Z, even-even nuclei like 16O and 20Ne. 2014 American Physical Society.
