Cross sections of theZn67(n,α)64Ni reaction at 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0 MeV

Abstract

Experimental cross section data of the $^{67}\mathrm{Zn}$$(n,\ensuremath{\alpha}){}^{64}$Ni reaction are very scanty because the residual nucleus $^{64}\mathrm{Ni}$ is stable and the commonly used activation method is not feasible. As a result, very large deviations (about 10 times) exist among different nuclear data libraries. In the present work, cross sections of the partial $^{67}\mathrm{Zn}$$(n,{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{0}){}^{64}$Ni and total $^{67}\mathrm{Zn}$$(n,\ensuremath{\alpha}){}^{64}$Ni reactions are measured at neutron energies of $4.0$ and $5.0$ MeV for the first time, and those of $6.0$ MeV are remeasured for consistency checking. A twin-gridded ionization chamber was used as the charged-particle detector and two enriched back-to-back-set $^{67}\mathrm{Zn}$ samples were adopted. Experiments were performed at the $4.5$ MV Van de Graaff Accelerator of Peking University. Neutrons were produced through the $^{2}\mathrm{H}$$(d,n){}^{3}$He reaction using a deuterium gas target. Absolute neutron flux was determined by counting the fission fragments from a $^{238}\mathrm{U}$ sample placed inside the gridded ionization chamber while a BF${}_{3}$ long counter was employed as neutron flux monitor. Present data are compared with results of previous measurements, evaluations, and talys code calculations.