Activation cross-section measurement of deuteron induced reactions on cerium for biomedical applications and for development of reaction theory

• Excitation function measurement of deuteron induced reactions on natural Ce up to 50 MeV.
• Model code calculations with EMPIRE-D, ALICE-D and TALYS (TENDL-2012).
• Integral production yield calculation.
• Discussion of medically relevant radioisotopes 143Pr, 142Pr, 141Ce and 139Ce.

In the frame of a systematic study of deuteron induced nuclear reactions on lanthanides we have measured the excitation functions on natural cerium for production of 142,139,138m,137Pr, 143,141,139,137m,137,135Ce and 140La up to 50 MeV deuteron energy using the activation method with stacked-foil irradiation technique and high-resolution γ-ray spectrometry. The cross-sections of the investigated reactions were calculated using the modified pre-compound model codes ALICE-IPPE-D and EMPIRE-II-D. A comparison was made also with the data retrieved from the TENDL-2012 library, based on the latest version of the TALYS code system. The measured cross-section data are important for further improvement of nuclear reaction models and for practical applications in nuclear medicine and other labeling and activation studies.