Influence of cluster configurations and nucleon-nucleon scattering cross section on stopping power in heavy-ion collisions

We investigate the impacts of nuclear $α$-clustering structures and nucleon--nucleon cross-section on nuclear stopping power for ${}^{16}\text{O}$ + ${}^{40}\text{Ca}$ collisions below 300 MeV/nucleon using an extended quantum molecular dynamics (EQMD) model. Our results show that the specific $α$-clustering configurations of ${}^{16}\text{O}$--including chain, square, kite, and tetrahedron--have a significant effect on collision dynamics. Among them, the tightly bound tetrahedral structure exhibits the highest stopping power. Moreover, the repulsive Coulomb interaction is found to reduce the stopping power of protons in the Fermi-energy domain. At higher energies, the decreasing trend is influenced by both the nucleon--nucleon cross-section and the mean field.