Neutron-induced charged-particle reactions in 6Li and 9Be

Abstract

Angular distributions of tritons from the 6Li(n, t) 4He reaction were measured at E n = 7.25, 6.77, 6.57, 5.24 and 4.71 MeV. Angular distributions of douterons from respectively, the 6Li(n, d) 5He two-body breakup reaction were measured at E n = 6.77 and 6.57 MeV, and of protons from the 6Li(n, p) 6He reaction at E n = 6.77, 5.24 and 4.71 MeV. All these reactions in 6Li were analyzed as direct interaction in the formalism of the distorted wave Born approximation. The optical model for the nuclear interaction was found to apply reasonably well to nuclei as light as 4He, 5He, 6He and 6Li. In addition, 6Li as an alpha-deuteron cluster gives the best bound-state wave function to describe the experimental angular distribution of tritons. The excitation functions at forward angles of the 6Li(n, t) 4He, 6Li(n, d) 5He and 6Li(n, p) 6He reactions were measured for incident neutron energies between 4.4 and 7.3 MeV. It is found that the 6Li(n, d) 5He two-body breakup reaction has a threshold at about E n = 5.3 MeV. Angular distributions at E n = 18.3 MeV for tritons and protons from the 9Be(n, t) 7Li and 9Be(n, p) 9Li, respectively, were also measured.