Activation cross sections of deuteron induced reactions on niobium in the 30–50 MeV energy range

• Deuteron induced nuclear reactions on natural niobium up to 50 MeV.
• Stacked foil irradiation technique.
• Comparison of results with the ALICE-D, EMPIRE-D and TENDL-2015 calculations.
• Application of radioisotopes in medicine and industry.

Activation cross-sections of deuterons induced reactions on Nb targets were determined with the aim of different applications and comparison with theoretical models. We present the experimental excitation functions of 93Nb(d,x)93m,90Mo, 92m,91m,90Nb, 89,88Zr and 88,87m,87gY in the energy range of 30–50 MeV. The results were compared with earlier measurements and with the cross-sections calculated by means of the theoretical model codes ALICE-D, EMPIRE-D and TALYS (on-line TENDL-2014 and TENDL-2015 libraries). Possible applications of the radioisotopes are discussed in detail.