65Cu isomeric cross sections for (n,α) reaction using approximately 14 MeV neutrons

•Measurements of neutron activation cross sections of 65Cu(n,α)62mCo reaction.•Cross sections are measured at six neutron energies from 13.60 and 14.86 MeV.•The activation technique was used as irradiation and counting method.•Model calculations by TALYS 1.6 code and data obtained from TENDL comparison to the measured cross sections.

In this paper, activation cross-section measurements for the 65Cu(n,α)62mCo (T1/2=13.86 min.) reaction at six different neutron energies ranging from 13.6 and 14.9 MeV are presented. The fast neutrons were produced via 3H(d, n)4He reactions from an SAMES T-400 neutron generator. An activation technique was used to measure induced gamma activities. A high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer with a high-purity germanium (HpGe) detector was used to acquire the data. The measured cross section data were corrected for gamma-ray attenuations, pulse pile-up effects, dead time, variations in neutron flux, and contributions from scattered low-energy neutrons. The measured cross sections were compared with statistical model calculations (TALYS 1.6 code), the experimental data available in the literature and the data obtained from TENDL.