The present study investigates the role of incomplete fusion (ICF) in heavy-ion reactions alongside complete fusion (CF) by measuring the recoil ranges of reaction residues. To distinguish between CF and ICF contributions, the linear momentum transfer from the projectile to the target nucleus was analyzed. Forward recoil range distributions (FRRDs) of radioactive residues formed in the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{174}\mathrm{Yb}$ system were measured at beam energies of 84.55 and 94.92 MeV using the recoil-catcher activation technique. The analysis of these distributions revealed signatures of both CF and ICF processes. Larger recoil ranges were associated with complete linear momentum transfer during CF, while reduced recoil ranges indicated partial momentum transfer caused by the incomplete fusion of the projectile. The findings suggests that the ICF probabilities generally increases with the target mass. However, an exception is observed for the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{174}\mathrm{Yb}$ system, where the observed lower $F_{\mathrm{ICF}}$ value is attributed to the smaller deformation parameter (${\beta }_2$) of ${}^{174}\mathrm{Yb}$ compared to ${}^{169}\mathrm{Tm}$. This indicates that nuclear deformation plays a crucial role in governing ICF reaction dynamics. Further, the measured total CF cross sections were compared with theoretical values of ccfull code and were found to be in good agreement. This system was also studied to investigate the presence of fusion hindrance phenomena at deep sub-barrier energies. It was observed that fusion is not hindered up to energy $\approx 11\%$ below the Coulomb barrier. Moreover, this study explores the production of medically relevant radioisotopes, including ${}^{186}\mathrm{Pt}$, using heavy-ion induced reactions. The findings highlight their potential theranostic applications, contributing to advances in nuclear medicine.

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• Breakup reactions
• Low & intermediate energy heavy-ion reactions
• Nuclear fusion
• S-factor