Experimental deuteron cross section measurements using single natural titanium foils from 3 to 9 MeV with special reference to the production of 47V and 51Ti

Although the conventional stacked foil technique is the common method for evaluating experimental cross sections of deuteron induced reactions on titanium, this work employed a single foil irradiation strategy. This strategy was selected for the purpose of improving the counting statistics for the reactions with low activation probabilities as it allowed for activity assay times comparable to the half-life of the product of interest. Given a single detector, similar activity assay times were not possible for the stacked foil technique as all remaining foils would have otherwise decayed significantly while the first foil was counting. To the best of our knowledge, this work reports the first comprehensive study of the elemental cross sections for production of 47V (t½ = 32.6 m) and 51Ti (t½ = 5.76 m) for 3–9 MeV deuterons on natural titanium foil. Elemental cross sections for the production of 44g,44m,46,47,48Sc, and 48V were also evaluated, with good agreement to previous literature generally observed.