Elastic Scattering of Deuterons from Mg, Al, Ti, V, Cr, Co, Ni, and Cu

Angular distributions of deuterons elastically scattered from Mg, Al, Ti, V, Cr, Co, Ni, and Cu have been measured at laboratory energies of 3.32 and 4.07 Mev. The measured cross sections show a smooth decrease below the Rutherford cross section for scattering angles greater than some critical angle which increases with increasing $A$ and decreasing deuteron energy. Cross sections calculated with an optical model show satisfactory agreement with the measurements. The dominant feature of the model is the large imaginary part of the potential, implying strong absorption of deuterons interacting with the nucleus. From the measurements, however, it does not appear possible to identify the reaction mechanism giving rise to this absorption.