Deuteron and Α -Particle-induced Nuclear Reactions on 45 Sc: Activation Cross Section Measurement and Thick Target Yield Evaluation

Systematic measurements of nuclear reaction cross sections were done in the low energy range for the two reactions 45 Sc( d,p ) 46 Sc and 45 Sc( α,n ) 48 V. Thin foils of high-purity (99.95%) natural Sc targets (100% 45 Sc), purchased from Good-Fellow, were irradiated with 10 and 20 MeV incident deuteron and α -particle energies, respectively, at beam current of 100 nA using MGC-20 cyclotron. For precise measurements, high-purity Ti and Cu foils were used for monitoring the actual deuteron and α -particle beam intensities, respectively. The conventional stacked-foil technique was applied for measurement and calculation of the cross section values using a high-resolution γ -ray spectrometer for measuring the radioactivity. Nuclear model code EMPIRE-3.2 was used for calculation of the investigated excitation functions. The obtained results were compared with the experimental values and TENDEL-2021 data which are based on TALYS-1.96 code calculations. The integrated yields for the two reactions, based on the proposed average excitation functions, were estimated.