Alpha–Ni optical model potentials Original Research Article

The present work reports the analyses of the experimental differential cross-sections of α elastic scattering on 58,60,62,64Ni, over a wide range of incident energies, in terms of four types of optical potentials, namely shallow (molecular), deep non-monotonic, squared Woods–Saxon and semi-microscopic folding. All the four potentials produce a reasonable description of the experimental data. The potential parameters, calculated from the energy density functional theory using a realistic two-nucleon interaction, resemble closely the molecular potential parameters, which produce the best description of the experimental data for the four isotopes. The volume integrals and the energy variation of the parameters indicate the effect of the shell-model structure on the potentials. The folding potentials, without any need for renormalization, are found to describe reasonably well the elastic scattering cross-section data for the four isotopes within the energy range considered. In conformity with the previous observation on Ca isotopes, the number of nucleons, 4Aα=49, existing in α-like clusters in the target nucleus, is the same for the four isotopes, considered herein.