  A universal decay law (UDL) for light cluster decay of excited nuclei is
formulated by fitting the UDL half-lives to those evaluated within an
excitation energy-dependent double folding model (DFM). The half-lives are
evaluated within a preformed cluster model. The excitation energy dependence is
introduced both in the energy of the emitted cluster and in the interaction
potential through the density distributions of the interacting nuclei. The
half-lives are found to decrease when the difference between the excitation
energies of the parent and daughter nuclei, $\Delta E^{*} > $ 0, increases,
with the reduction being a few orders of magnitude for higher values of $\Delta
E^{*}$. This can be of importance for nucleosynthesis calculations of heavy
elements formed in extremely hot environments, as well as in highly energetic
heavy-ion collisions. The UDL for excited nuclei is used to provide an estimate
of the enhancement in the cluster decay rates of thermally excited nuclei such
as those produced in r-process nucleosynthesis.
