Polarized proton scattering from ¹¹⁶,120,124Sn at 16 MeV

Elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections and analyzing powers have been determined for 16 MeV polarized protons incident on ¹¹⁶,120,124Sn. Data extracted for these isotopes include scattering from the lowest 2⁺ and 3^- collective states and two other less collective states (5^-,4⁺) below 3 MeV in excitation. Our analysis of the data uses a coupled-channel formalism based on the harmonic vibrational model with a (0⁺,2⁺,3^-,5^-4⁺) coupling scheme. Nuclear deformation parameters of the central and spin-orbit potentials for the excited states have been extracted and compared with similar quantities deduced from (n→,n) scattering from the same isotopes.