Measurement of the cross sections of the reactions 14N(n, α)11B and 14N(n, t)12C at neutron energies 5.45–7.2 MeV

Abstract

The cross sections of the reactions 14N(n, α)11B and 14N(n, t)12C have been measured for neutron energies 5.46–7.2 MeV. The neutrons are generated in the reaction D(d, n) on a solid titanium target. The work employs digital spectrometry. The charged-particle detector is a pulsed ionization chamber with a Frisch grid, filled with a kyrpton-nitrogen mixture. The cross sections are measured for four groups of α particles α0, α1, α2, and α3 from the reaction 14N(n, α)11B and for tritium from the reaction 14N(n, t)12C. The energy resolution of the spectrometer was 60 keV. The errors in determining the cross sections for the reactions (n, α) and (n, t) are 10–15%. The measurement results are compared with the ENDF/V VI evaluation. Good agreement is obtained in the neutron energy range 5.45–6.5 MeV. At higher energies, the discrepancy reaches 30%.