Abstract
Targets are in many cases an indispensable ingredient for successful experiments aimed to produce nuclear data. With the recently observed shift to study nuclear reactions on radioactive targets, this task can become extremely challenging. Concerted actions of a certain number of laboratories able to produce isotopes and manufacture radioactive targets are urgently needed. We present here some examples of successful isotope and target production at PSI, in particular the production of 60 Fe samples used for half-life measurements and neutron capture cross section experiments, the chemical processing and fabrication of lanthanide targets for capture cross section experiments at n_TOF (European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland) as well as the recently performed manufacturing of highly-radioactive 7 Be targets for the measurement of the 7 Be(n,α)4 He cross section in the energy range of interest for the Big-Bang nucleosynthesis contributing to the solving of the cosmological Li-problem. The two future projects: “Determination of the half-life and experiments on neutron capture cross sections of 53 Mn” and “32 Si – a new chronometer for nuclear dating” are briefly described. Moreover, we propose to work on the establishment of a dedicated network on isotope and target producing laboratories.
Highlights
Over the past 20 years, we observe an increasing demand on precise, accurate and reliable experimentally determined nuclear data in a certain number of scientific research fields like nuclear astrophysics, basic nuclear physics, nuclear medicine, geoscience, super heavy element research and many others
High is the waiting list for sample and target preparation, even if the isotope itself is available in sufficient amounts
The picture (Fig. 1) shows the 60Fe target which was used for the determination of the neutron capture cross section at stellar energies [15] as an example: Standard material for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry measurements has been manufactured and is already in use at University Munich and the Australian National University (ANU) Canberra [17]
Summary
Over the past 20 years, we observe an increasing demand on precise, accurate and reliable experimentally determined nuclear data in a certain number of scientific research fields like nuclear astrophysics, basic nuclear physics, nuclear medicine, geoscience, super heavy element research and many others. This demand results likewise in an increasing number of requests for high-quality sample material in sufficient amounts and well-characterized isotopic composition as well as the manufacturing of targets in a shape suitable for the special envisaged application. We want to illuminate this essential problem, and show some highlights from the PSI isotope and target production activities, beginning with a brief summary of successful experiments and mentioning at the end some future projects
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