Proton-90Zr interaction at sub-Coulomb proton energies.

Abstract

The proton-/sup 90/Zr interaction at sub-Coulomb energies has been investigated in the context of the Lane model, with isospin coupling included, and with alternate decay modes represented with the Hauser-Feshbach model. Scattering and reaction cross sections were accurately measured in order to obtain enough information to constrain the real and absorptive parts of the proton potential. Differential elastic scattering excitation functions were measured at back angles of 135/sup 0/ and 165/sup 0/ from 2 to 7 MeV, with cross section accuracies of 3%. The energy range was sufficient to go from a region where the backscattering was predominantly Coulomb, enabling additional checks on the cross section accuracies, to a region where the gross structure of the cross sections deviated significantly from Rutherford scattering. Radiative capture cross sections were measured from 1.9 to 5.7 MeV proton energies. The capture cross sections were obtained by summing the measured cross sections for the first two primary gamma rays in addition to some 34 other transitions which terminated on the ground and first excited state. The total inelastic scattering cross section to all /sup 90/Zr excited states (except the first excited state which has been previously measured) was measured at several energies between 3.9more » and 5.7 MeV by observing the radiative decay of the residual, excited /sup 90/Zr nuclei. The analysis yielded several model parameters suggestive of large nuclear structure effects. The depth of the absorptive potential was found to vary as W/sub D/ = 2.73+0.70 E/sub p/ in the 2 to 7 MeV proton energy range studied. A real diffuseness of 0.54 fm, significantly smaller than that obtained in neighboring nuclei, was obtained.« less