The Cd-106(alpha, alpha)Cd-106 elastic scattering in a wide energy range for gamma process studies

Alpha elastic scattering angular distributions of the Cd-106(alpha, alpha)Cd-106 reaction were measured at three energies around the Coulomb barrier to provide a sensitive test for the alpha + nucleus optical potential parameter sets. Furthermore, the new high precision angular distributions, together with the data available from the literature were used to study the energy dependence of the locally optimized alpha + nucleus optical potential in a wide energy region ranging from E-Lab = 27.0 MeV down to 16.1 MeV. The potentials under study are a basic prerequisite for the prediction of alpha-induced reaction cross sections and thus, for the calculation of stellar reaction rates used for the astrophysical gamma process. Therefore, statistical model predictions using as input the optical potentials discussed in the present work are compared to the available Cd-106 + alpha cross section data. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.