MEASUREMENTS OF ABSOLUTE ?-RAY CROSS SECTIONS FOR ¹⁶O(p, p'?)¹⁶O REACTION^*

We report on the results of our measurements of ?-ray cross sections from the inelastic scattering of protons from 16O in the energy range of 8-16 MeV. The absolute cross sections were measured for the ?-rays of energy 6.13, 6.92, and 7.12 MeV. Angular distribution was measured at seven angles at a proton beam energy of 9 MeV. This work reports on the first measurement of absolute cross section for 6.92 MeV ?-ray in this energy region. Such cross-section measurements provide important data for ?-ray astronomy and material analysis techniques. A phenomenological optical model potential (OMP) was set up to analyse the results of our measurements. Such OMP calculations have challenged theorists in this target mass and projectile-energy range. The challenge stems from the increased contribution of nuclear structure effects for low-mass target nuclei. We have tried to tackle this problem by including many low-energy resonances and target deformation effects. We optimised the OMP parameters by fitting a large body of available experimental data. The target deformation parameter plays a crucial role in understanding the overall dynamics of the reaction.