  A semiclassical analysis of an optical potential cross section is presented.
The cross section considered is characterized by the appearance of an Airy-like
pattern. This pattern is similar to that which is present in many cross
sections, which fit the recent measurements of light heavy ion elastic
scattering, and is considered as a manifestation of a rainbow phenomenon. The
semiclassical analysis shows that, in the case considered, the oscillations
arise from the interference between the contributions from two different terms
of a multi-reflection expansion of the scattering function, and, therefore,
cannot be associated with the rainbow phenomenon.
