Activation cross sections of α-particle induced nuclear reactions on hafnium and deuteron induced nuclear reaction on tantalum: Production of 178W/178mTa generator

Abstract

In the frame of a systematic study of charged particle production routes of medically relevant radionuclei, the excitation function for indirect production of 178mTa through natHf(α,xn)178W–178mTa nuclear reaction was measured for the first time up to 40MeV. In parallel, the side reactions natHf(α,x)179,177,176,175W, 183,182,178g,177,176,175Ta, 179m,177m,175Hf were also assessed. Stacked foil irradiation technique and γ-ray spectrometry were used. New experimental cross section data for the natTa(d,xn)178W reaction are also reported up to 40MeV. The measured excitation functions are compared with the results of the ALICE-IPPE, and EMPIRE nuclear reaction model codes and with the TALYS 1.4 based data in the TENDL-2013 library. The thick target yields were deduced and compared with yields of other charged particle ((p,4n), (d,5n) and (3He,x)) production routes for 178W.