Excitation functions of the p+Nb93 reaction in the energy range 10-22 MeV

Excitation functions of the proton induced reactions on Nb93 were measured using the stack foil activation followed by off-line γ-ray spectrometry at 14UD BARC-TIFR Pelletron accelerator, Mumbai, India. Proton beam of 22 MeV was used for the present analysis and was degraded along the stack of five niobium foils. We have identified Mo93m, Nb92m and Zr89g reaction residues populated through (p,n), (p,pn) and (p,αn) reaction channels, respectively. The measured cross-section data were compared with the existing literature data available in EXFOR and were found to be in a good agreement. The calculated excitation functions were also compared with the theoretical predictions of TALYS-1.9 code using suitable input parameters for the pure compound nucleus (CN) and pre-equilibrium (PE) reaction cross-sections. The PE process was found to be dominant over the CN process at higher incident proton energies. The present work is also essential for the production cross-section and dose estimation for the medical isotope Zr89g in PET diagnostics procedure.