Investigation of activation cross-sections of deuteron induced nuclear reactions on natural Mo up to 50 MeV

Cross-sections of deuteron induced nuclear reactions on natural molybdenum have been studied in the frame of a systematic investigation of charged particle induced nuclear reactions on metals for different applications. The excitation functions of 93,94g,94m,95g,95m,96,99mTc, 90,93m,99Mo, 90,91m,92m,95m,95g,96Nb and 88,89Zr were measured up to 50 MeV deuteron energy by using the stacked foil technique and activation method. The goal of this work was first of all to study the production possibility of the medically important 99mTc, and its 99Mo parent, to get experimental data useful in accelerator technology, and for testing nuclear reaction theories. The thick target yields and production possibilities of 99mTc and 99Mo were estimated up to 50 MeV deuteron energy, and it is shown that besides the proton induced reactions, deuteron induced reactions on enriched molybdenum target seem to be promising. For most of the reaction products published experimental data for excitation functions are available only up to 20 MeV, and our new values confirm and extend the dataset. The experimental data were compared with the results of model calculations obtained by using ALICE-IPPE-D, EMPIRE-II-D and two versions of the TALYS code resulting in moderate agreement.

► Excitation function measurement of deuteron induced reactions on molybdenum up to 50 MeV.
► Model code calculations with EMPIRE-D, ALICE-D and TALYS.
► Integral production yield calculation.
► Medical radioisotope production; 99mTc and 99Mo.