Photodisintegration of /sup 3/H and /sup 3/He. [Threshold to 25 MeV

Abstract

The photoneutron cross sections for /sup 3/H and /sup 3/He have been measured from threshold to approx. 25 MeV with monoenergetic photons from the annihilation in flight of fast positrons at the LLL Electron-Positron Linear Accelerator facility. These reactions include the two-body breakup of /sup 3/H and the three-body breakup of both /sup 3/H and /sup 3/He; these measurements for /sup 3/H are the first to span the energy region across the peaks of the cross sections. An efficient BF/sub 3/-tube-and-paraffin neutron detector and high-pressure gaseous samples of several moles each (the activity of the /sup 3/H sample was approx. 200,000 Ci) were employed in these measurements. Measurements on /sup 16/O and /sup 2/H also were performed to verify the absolute cross-section scale. The results, when compared with each other and with results for the two-body breakup cross section for /sup 3/He from the literature, show that the two-body breakup cross sections for /sup 3/H and /sup 3/He have nearly the same shape, but the one for /sup 3/He lies lower in magnitude; the three-body breakup cross section for /sup 3/He lies higher in magnitude and is broader in the peak region and also rises less sharply from threshold than that for /sup 3/H; and these measured differences between the cross sections for the breakup modes largely compensate in their sum, so that the total photon absorption cross sections for /sup 3/H and /sup 3/He are nearly the same in both size and shape at energies near and above their peaks. Theoretical results from the literature disagree with the experimental results to a certain extent over the entire photon-energy region for which the photoneutron cross sections were measured. 50 figures, 7 tables.