Neutron production by a 13C thick target irradiated by 20-90Â MeV protons

Neutron production using an enriched 13C carbon converter has been measured during the design study of the italian RIB facility SPES. Energy and angular distributions of neutrons emitted by bombarding a 13C target of stopping length with protons in the range of 20 to 90 MeV have been measured by time-of-flight and activation and compared with the prediction of a Monte Carlo code developed at Snezhinsk. At the proton energy of 100 MeV, firstly envisaged for SPES, the gain with respect to a natural C target is less than a factor of two, while yields still compare well with those for 40 MeV deuterons on natural carbon adopted by SPIRAL-II. At energies near 30 MeV the 13C thick target is definitely more prolific than the target of natural carbon, but both yields with protons are clearly lower than the one with deuterons. At the energy of 20 MeV envisaged for a first stage of SPES it might be more efficient to irradiate the uranium target with protons rather than using the two-stage method with converter.