Optical model analyses of elastic scattering of heavy ions have been carried out by Porter (1958) for nitrogen-nitrogen, and a preliminary study of the carbonnitrogen system has been made by Bassel, Melkanoff, and Drisko (Halbert, Hunting, and Zucker 1960). These analyses have shown that the optical model is capable of predicting, to a higher accuracy than the semiclassical models, the heavy ion elastic angular distributions. We have applied the optical model to the symmetrical carbon-carbon system using a Woods-Saxon potential in conjunction with a Coulomb potential modified to allow for the finite size of the interacting nuclei. The Woods-Saxon potential has the form where the interaction radius R is twice the nuclear radius roA 11 3 , and a is the diffuseness parameter. The numerical integration of the radial wave equation was carried out on the computer CSIRAC at the University of Melbourne.Calculations were made at both 10·0 and 12·5 MeV, the results at 10 MeV being given in Figure 1. The discrepancy at small angles is attributed to an uncertainty in experimental normalization (Bromley, Kuehner, and Almqvist 1961). The best fit to the elastic differential cross section was obtained for V=-25 MeV, W=-10MeV, a=0·6fermi, and r o =1·31 fermi. Calculations were also carried out for two other values of diffuseness and radius and for one other value of V and W. The results of the variation of diffuseness and radius are shown in Figure 1. Variation of these parameters had a marked effect on the differential cross section, whereas the values of V and W were of little importance. Decreasing the diffuseness had the expected result of raising the cross section due to reflection by the discontinuity in potential. Variation of ro, on the other hand, produced a change differing from that experienced in nucleon-nucleus scattering. The predominant effect in the elastic scattering of neutrons on increasing the radius is to move the whole diffraction pattern to smaller angles, whereas in the heavy ion case the whole diffraction pattern is lowered on increasing the radius. This lowering of the cross section is also accompanied by a very small shift to higher angles, in contrast with the nucleonnucleus case. Altering W from 10 to 15 MeV increased the scattering for angles larger than 55° by approximately 10%, whereas changing V from 25 to 30 MeV produced a decrease for angles larger than 40° of approximately 7 %. Thus the heavy ions cross section is dependent only on the " external" parameters, * Manuscript received