Activation cross sections of α-particle induced nuclear reactions on hafnium and deuteron induced nuclear reaction on tantalum: Production of 178W/178mTa generator

•α-Particle induced reactions on natural Hf up to 40 MeV by stacked foil technique.•Deuteron induced reactions on natural Ta up to 50 MeV by stacked foil technique.•Comparison of experimental results with the ALICE, EMPIRE and TALYS codes.•Calculation and comparison of thick target integral yields.•Comparison of the production routes of 178W.

In the frame of a systematic study of charged particle production routes of medically relevant radionuclei, the excitation function for indirect production of 178mTa through natHf(α,xn)178W–178mTa nuclear reaction was measured for the first time up to 40 MeV. In parallel, the side reactions natHf(α,x)179,177,176,175W, 183,182,178g,177,176,175Ta, 179m,177m,175Hf were also assessed. Stacked foil irradiation technique and γ-ray spectrometry were used. New experimental cross section data for the natTa(d,xn)178W reaction are also reported up to 40 MeV. The measured excitation functions are compared with the results of the ALICE-IPPE, and EMPIRE nuclear reaction model codes and with the TALYS 1.4 based data in the TENDL-2013 library. The thick target yields were deduced and compared with yields of other charged particle ((p,4n), (d,5n) and (3He,x)) production routes for 178W.