Excitation energy deposition in 209Bi(α,α′) reactions at 240 MeV

Abstract

The excitation energy deposited in the reaction 209 Bi(α,α′) at 240 MeV has been determined using the TAMU Neutron Ball. The reconstructed average excitation energies as a function of the beam energy losses show that not all of the missing beam energy is usually deposited as thermal excitation in the target nucleus. Requiring an additional coincidence with a light charged particle or fission fragment leads to selection of a significant higher average excitation energy. This effect is extrapolated to explore results of previous GDR decay measurements in the case of a 208 Pb target.