Applications of <Superscript>3</Superscript>He neutron detectors

Neutron detectors with ³He-filled proportional counters are described. The use of these detectors in measuring the probability of neutron emission (in particular, multiparticle neutron emission) after the β decay of neutron-rich nuclei and in studying rare events of spontaneous fission of superheavy nuclei is considered.     

Precise determination of neutron binding energy of <Superscript>64</Superscript>Cu

The neutron binding energy in ⁶⁴Cu has been accurately measured in thermal neutron capture. A composite target of natural Cu and NaCl was used on a high flux neutron beam using a large measuring time. The γ-ray spectrum emitted in the (n, γ) reaction was measured with a HPGe detector in large statistics (up to 10⁶ events per channel). Intrinsic limitations of HPGe detectors, which restrict the accuracy of energy calibration, were determined. The value B _n of ⁶⁴Cu was determined as 7915.867(24) keV.     

Hypersatellites at <Superscript>109</Superscript>Ag, <Superscript>123</Superscript>Te,and <Superscript>147</Superscript>Pm autoionization during internal electron conversion

The formation of hypersatellites during internal electron conversion in ¹⁰⁹Ag, ¹²³Te, and ¹⁴⁷Pm nuclei has been investigated on multidimensional-coincidence spectrometers with Ge-Si(Li), Ge-Ge, and NaI(Tl) detectors. The probability of double ionization of the K shell in these nuclei is determined and hypersatellite energy shift is measured.     

Thermal neutron capture cross-section of <Superscript>76</Superscript>Ge

The thermal neutron capture cross-sections of the ⁷⁶Ge(n,)⁷⁷Ge and the ⁷⁶Ge(n,)^77m Ge reactions have been measured by activating targets of isotopically enriched GeO₂ through cold neutrons. The -decay spectra after the -decay of ⁷⁷Ge and ^77m Ge were measured with HPGe detectors. From these spectra the cross-sections for the ⁷⁶Ge(n,) reactions were derived relative to the cross-section of ¹⁹⁷Au using the absolute emission probabilities of the observed -ray energies. The methods used in this work result in smaller systematic uncertainties than those obtained in previous experiments.     

Nuclear-charge polarization at scission in the 12 MeV proton-induced fission of <Superscript>232</Superscript>Th

The most probable charges of secondary fragments, produced after neutron evaporation from primary fragments, have been evaluated using fractional cumulative and mass yields in the 12MeV proton-induced fission of ²³²Th . The nuclear-charge polarization of primary fragments at scission has been obtained by correcting the most probable charge of secondary fragments for neutron evaporation. The fragment mass dependence of the nuclear-charge polarization at scission shows good agreement with that for thermal neutron-induced fission of ²³⁵U , indicating that the nuclear-charge polarization is nearly insensitive to mass and excitation energy of the fissioning nucleus for asymmetric fission in the actinide region.     

Neutron single-particle structure of <Superscript>48</Superscript>Ca, <Superscript>50</Superscript>Ti, <Superscript>52</Superscript>Cr, <Superscript>54</Superscript>Fe,and <Superscript>56</Superscript>Ni nuclei

The change in the neutron single-particle structure of (1f?2p)-shell magic nuclei near the Fermi energy with an increase in the number of protons in the 1f _7/2 subshell from 0 for ⁴⁸Ca to 8 for ⁵⁶Ni has been investigated. Good agreement of the experimental and estimated values of the single-particle energies E _nlj of the bound states of neutrons in these nuclei with the results of calculations within the dispersive optical model is obtained.     

Analyzing the p(<Superscript>6</Superscript>He,n gamma)<Superscript>6</Superscript>Li reaction

The differential cross section of the charge-exchange reaction p(⁶He, n)⁶Li(0⁺, 3.56 MeV) is calculated within the context of direct mechanisms: the stripping of a heavy ⁵He cluster, replacing a virtual neutron with a proton in the 5He cluster field, and the mechanism of consecutive transfer of a neutron and an α particle. The spatial structure of initial and final nucleus is determined from the dependence of various direct mechanisms contributions from spatial configurations.     

<Superscript>10</Superscript>B<Superscript>+</Superscript>-ion implantation into photoresist

100-keV ¹⁰B⁺ ions were implanted into photoresist in different directions at a fluence of 1×10¹⁴ cm^-2, and their depth distribution was determined by means of the neutron depth profiling technique. In no case were the projectile ions found to come to rest according to their predicted implantation profiles. Instead, they are always found to undergo considerable long-range migration. During the irradiation process this motion appears to be enhanced by the radiation damage, and during the subsequent annealing steps one deals with thermal diffusion. The implant redistribution is always found to be governed strongly by the self-created damage, insofar as both electronic and nuclear defects in the polymer act as trapping centers. The implant redistribution shows a pronounced directional dependence, essentially as a consequence of the spatial distribution of the electronic energy loss. The changes of the nuclear defect distribution during thermal annealing are studied by a specially developed tomographic method in three dimensions. PACS 61.72.Ww; 61.80.Jh; 61.41.+e; 66.30.-h; 66.30.Jt     

One-neutron stripping reactions of <Superscript>11</Superscript>Be and <Superscript>19</Superscript>C on light target

We have calculated the one-neutron absorption cross-section and the longitudinal momentum distribution of the core fragment coming out from the breakup of ¹¹Be and ¹⁹C on ⁹Be target at 63 MeV/A and 88 MeV/A beam energies respectively. The reaction mechanism is treated within the framework of the eikonal approximation. The effective range of the nuclear interaction between the core and the valence neutron within the projectile has been determined by comparing the predicted stripping cross-section with the recently measured one. The effective range for ¹⁹C has been found to be smaller than that for ¹¹Be. It qualitatively indicates that ¹⁹C is slightly more halo than ¹¹Be. The smaller width, predicted as well as measured, of the LMD of ¹⁸C than ¹⁰Be also strengthens this fact. The experimental data concerning the LMD of core fragments have been well represented.      

Stand for testing scintillation neutron detectors

A stand for studying the characteristics of time-of-flight neutron detectors is described. Plastic scintillation detectors in the form of rectangular prisms with cross sections of 100 × 100 and 100 × 200 mm² and lengths of 300, 400, and 500 mm are viewed through by photomultipliers from the two ends. The detectors are irradiated with a collimated 14-MeV neutron beam produced in the d + t → n+ ⁴He reaction. The collimated beam makes it possible to investigate the spatial resolution of long detectors. The interaction point is determined either from the arrival time of light pulses to the opposite ends of the scintillators or from the ratio of the amplitudes of the signals at the ends of the scintillators. The stand proposed also makes it possible to measure the absolute efficiency of detectors of different length at a neutron energy of 14 MeV.     

Search for the emission of π<Superscript>0</Superscript> mesons from the neutron-induced fission of <Superscript>235</Superscript>U nuclei

A nuclear-reactor experiment on the search for the emission of neutral pions from the neutron-induced fission of ²³⁵U nuclei has been carried out. To this end, an experimental setup for searching for the emission of π⁰ mesons with high sensitivity to this process has been designed and produced. This setup consisted of two Cherenkov total-absorption spectrometers for the detection and measurements of the energy of two gamma-ray photons from π ⁰-meson decay. The spectrometers were placed at the exits of two coaxial horizontal experimental channels. To protect the detectors from low-energy β and γ rays and neutron fluxes, 3.5-m-long water filters were situated in the channels. To reject the cosmic background, large-area scintillation counters operating in the anticoincidence mode were placed over each spectrometer. The energy and time resolution of the spectrometers, as well as the efficiency of detecting charged particles by scintillation counters, were tested on the secondary electron beam of the Tomsk electron synchrotron Sirius. Runs of measurements of the effect on the operating reactor (duration of 805 h) were alternated with runs of measurements of background on the stopped reactor (duration of 403 h). Statistical processing of the experimental results yields an upper limit of ≤5.3×10 ^?12 with a 90% confidence level for the probability of the emission of neutral pions from the neutron-induced fission of ²³⁵U nuclei. This result and results of other works carried out with sources of spontaneously fissioning ²⁵²Cf nuclei show that the probabilities of the emission of π⁰ mesons from spontaneous fission and fission induced by fission-spectrum neutrons are equal to each other.     

Lifetimes of <Superscript>48</Superscript>Ti, <Superscript>52</Superscript>Cr and <Superscript>80</Superscript>Se excited states

Doppler shift attenuation was used to measure the lifetimes of ⁴⁸Ti, ⁵²Cr and ⁸⁰Se nuclei excited states populated in the (n, n′γ) reaction using the neutron beam of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s WWR-K research reactor. The measured data are in good agreement with the latest literature data.     

Dynamical decay process of <Superscript>219, 220</Superscript>Ra<Superscript>*</Superscript> formed in <Superscript>10, 11</Superscript>B + <Superscript>209</Superscript>Bi reactions

The excitation functions for both the evaporation residue and fission have been calculated for ¹⁰B + ²⁰⁹Bi and ¹¹B + ²⁰⁹Bi reactions forming compound systems ^{219, 220}Ra^* , using the dynamical cluster-decay model (DCM) with effects of deformations and orientations of the nuclei included in it. In addition to this, the excitation functions for complete fusion (CF) are obtained by summing the fission cross-sections, neutron evaporation and charged particle evaporation residue cross-sections produced through the axn\ensuremath \alpha xn and pxn\ensuremath pxn (x = 2, 3, 4) emission channels for the ²¹⁹Ra system at various incident centre-of-mass energies. Experimentally the CF cross-sections are suppressed and the observed suppression is attributed to the low binding energy of ^{10, 11}B which breaks up into charged fragments. The reported complete fusion (CF) and incomplete fusion (ICF) excitation functions for the ²¹⁹Ra system are found to be nicely fitted by the calculations performed in the framework of DCM, without invoking a significant contribution from quasi-fission. Although DCM has been applied for a number of compound nucleus decay studies in the recent past, the same is being used here in reference to ICF and subsequent decay processes along with the CF process. Interestingly the main contribution to complete fusion cross-section comes from the fission cross-section at higher incident energies, which in DCM is found to consist of an asymmetric fission window, shown to arise due to the deformation and orientation effects of formation and decay fragments.     

Studies of multi-nucleon transfer reactions in <Superscript>90</Superscript>Zr(<Superscript>18</Superscript>O,X) and <Superscript>90</Superscript>Zr(<Superscript>16</Superscript>O,X)

Multi-nucleon transfer reactions in ¹⁸O + ⁹⁰Zr and ¹⁶O + ⁹⁰Zr have been studied at an incident energy of 90 MeV. The energy spectra and angular distributions are measured. The data have been analyzed to obtain cross-section dependence on the number of nucleons transferred and on the ground-state Q-values. In the ⁹⁰Zr(¹⁸O, X); X = ¹⁶O, ^17,16,15,14N, ^14,13,12C, ^12,11,10B, ^10,9,7Be and ^7,6Li reactions, 2n and 2n-correlated transfer cross-sections are observed to be enhanced as compared to the ¹⁶O + ⁹⁰Zr reaction. A detailed comparison in the multi-particle stripping and elastic-scattering cross-section between these two systems are made in order to investigate the possible influence of the two valence neutrons in ¹⁸O nucleus. Diffractional model DWBA calculations, based on the direct surface transfer model, have been performed to understand the reaction mechanism of multi-nucleon transfer to continuum.Received: 12 September 2002, Revised: 24 September 2003, Published online: 27 January 2004PACS: 25.70.Hi Transfer reactions - 25.70.Bc Elastic and quasielastic scattering     

The effect of the initial exciton numbers on <Superscript>54,56</Superscript>Fe(<Emphasis Type="Italic">p,xp</Emphasis>) Pre-Equilibrium Reactions

In pre-equilibrium nuclear reactions, the geometry-dependent hybrid model is applied with the use of the neutron and proton densities to investigate the effect of initial exciton numbers on the nucleon emission spectra. The initial exciton numbers calculated with the theoretical neutron and proton densities have been obtained within the Skryme-Hartree-Fock method with SKM* and SLy4 forces on target nuclei in the ^54,56Fe(p, xp) reaction at 61.5-MeV incident proton energy by using a new calculationmethod of Tel et al. Also, the differences between the initial exciton numbers for protons and neutrons as a function of nuclear radius, focusing on systematic discrepancies correlated to differences in the proton and neutron densities have been investigated.     

Measurement of delayed-neutron yield from <Superscript>237</Superscript>Np fission induced by thermal neutrons

The delayed-neutron yield from thermal-neutron-induced fission of the ²³⁷Np nucleus was measured using a sample periodically exposed to a pulsed neutron beam with subsequent detection of neutrons during the time intervals between pulses. The experiment was realized on an Isomer-M setup mounted in the IBR-2 pulsed reactor channel equipped with a mirror neutron guide. The setup and the experimental procedure are described, the background sources are thoroughly analyzed, and the experimental data are presented. The total delayed-neutron yield from ²³⁷Np fission induced by thermal neutrons is ν _d = 0.0110 ± 0.0009. This study was performed at the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics (JINR, Dubna).     

Inorganic scintillators for thermal neutron detection

A review is presented of R&D of inorganic scintillators for position-sensitive thermal neutron detectors to be used at new spallation neutron sources.     

Decay of 1.643 h <Superscript>95</Superscript>Ru and its daughter's level structure

The decay of ⁹⁵Ru has been investigated by means of γ-ray spectroscopy. The ⁹⁵Ru nuclei were produced by the reaction ⁹²Mo( α, n) ⁹⁵Ru at a beam energy of 17MeV. High-purity Ge detectors have been used singly and in coincidence to study γ-rays in the decay of ⁹⁵Ru to ⁹⁵Tc. 132 γ-rays are reported, among them, energies and intensities for 127 transitions have been determined. A decay scheme of ⁹⁵Ru with 31 levels is proposed which accommodates 127 of these transitions. Spins and parities for three new levels are proposed from calculated log ft values, measured γ-ray branching ratios, and in-beam experiment results of the daughter nucleus ⁹⁵Tc. Combining with the high-spin states observed by in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy of previous decay works, the structure of the excited states of ⁹⁵Tc is discussed in the framework of the projected shell model.     

Production of <Superscript>149</Superscript>Tb in Alpha-Particle-Induced Nuclear Reactions

The sensitivity of the method of neutron scattering to novel neutron–nucleon interactions is analyzed. Upper limits on the coupling constant of such interactions are imposed using the available data on neutron powder diffraction on polycrystalline silicon. For the forces acting at ranges of λ < 10^–11 m, these upper limits are already competitive with the best existing constraints on their coupling constant. A dedicated experiment can help improve the sensitivity to this coupling constant by nearly two orders of magnitude.     

Near-barrier neutron transfer in reactions <Superscript>6</Superscript>He + <Superscript>45</Superscript>Sc, <Superscript>64</Superscript>Zn,and <Superscript>197</Superscript>Au

Experimental cross sections of formation of isotopes ⁴⁶Sc (in reaction ⁶He + ⁴⁵Sc), ^196,198Au (in reaction ⁶He + ¹⁹⁷Au), and ⁶⁵Zn (in reaction ⁶He + ⁶⁴Zn) are analyzed. The time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the outer neutrons of ⁶He and ¹⁹⁷Au nuclei is solved numerically to calculate the probability of neutron transfer and transfer cross sections. In reaction ⁶He + ¹⁹⁷Au, the contribution of fusion and subsequent evaporation to experimental data can be neglected, while the corresponding contributions to reactions ⁶He + ⁴⁵Sc and ⁶He + ⁶⁴Zn are considerable. Fusion–evaporation is taken into account using the computational code of the NRV knowledge base. The results of calculations are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data.