The optical reaction cross-sections forn, p,2H,3He,3He and4He for several global optical potentials available in the literature have been parametrized in terms of simple empirical expressions which are smooth functions of the target mass number and the projectile energy. The empirical forms are 5–10% accurate over the periodic table and energy-range upto 50 MeV. They can be conveniently used in calculations where the optical reaction cross-sections are required as input. The calculation of proton spectra in the (n, p) reaction at 14 MeV is discussed.
