Production cross-sections of radionuclides from α-induced reactions on natural copper up to 50 MeV

The excitation functions were measured for the natCu(α,x)66,67Ga,65Zn,57,58,60Co reactions in the energy range of 16.5 −50 MeV. A conventional stacked-foil activation technique combined with HPGe γ-ray spectrometry was employed to determine cross-sections. The measured cross-sections were critically compared with relevant previous experimental data and also with the evaluated data in the TENDL-2014 library. Present results confirmed some of the previous experimental data, whereas only a partial agreement was found with the evaluated data. The measured data are useful for reducing the existing discrepancies in the literature, to improve the nuclear reaction model codes, and to enrich the experimental database towards various applications.