Coupled channel description of 16O+142,144,146Nd scattering around the Coulomb barrier using a complex microscopic potential Original Research Article

Angular distributions of elastic scattering and inelastic scattering from 2+1 state are measured for 16O+142,144,146Nd systems at several energies in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier. The angular distributions are systematically analyzed in coupled channel framework. Renormalized double folded real optical and coupling potentials with DDM3Y interaction have been used in the calculation. Relevant nuclear densities needed to generate the potentials are derived from shell model wavefunctions. A truncated shell model calculation has been performed and the calculated energy levels are compared with the experimental ones. To simulate the absorption, a ‘hybrid’ approach is adopted. The contribution to the imaginary potential of couplings to the inelastic channels, other than the 2+1 target excitation channel, is calculated in the Feshbach formalism. This calculated imaginary potential along with a short ranged volume Woods–Saxon potential to simulate the absorption in fusion channel reproduces the angular distributions for 16O+146Nd quite well. But for 16O+142,144Nd systems additional surface absorption is found to be necessary to fit the angular distribution data. The variations of this additional absorption term with incident energy and the mass of the target are explored.