The positively charged irradiating particle has to pass through the Coulomb barrier of the target nucleus, so the energy of the irradiating particle has to be higher than the threshold energy, even in the case of exoergic reactions. The Coulomb barrier of light nuclei is always lower, so the nuclear reaction of the charged particles with light elements is more feasible. The maximal energy of the alpha particles is about 9 MeV, which is enough to overcome the Coulomb barrier of the light elements (e. g., (6.1) and (6.2) reactions). For most nuclear reactions with charged particles, however, the energy of the particles has to be amplified, i. e., the charged particles have to be accelerated. This has been done in van de Graaf generators, and more recently, linear accelerators and cyclotrons have been used (see Section 8.5.2).

The characteristic types of nuclear reactions with charged particles were shown in Table 6.1. They are presented here on the basis of irradiating particles.