Nuclear photoexcitation and delbrück scattering studied in the energy range 2–8 MeV

Elastic scattering by nuclei in the range of mass numbers between 64 and 238 has been studied with monochromatic photons in the energy range between 2 and 8 MeV. These photons were provided either by a Ti(n,γ) source installed in the tangential through channel of the Grenoble high flux reactor, or by²⁴Na and⁵⁶Co sources produced by deuteron bombardment of Al or Fe at the Göttingen cyclotron. The photoexcitation of 23 nuclear levels has been observed and the decay properties and groundstate widths of the majority of these levels have been determined. For the lead scattering target the coherent elastic differential cross section has been studied in detail. There is evidence that below the photo-neutron threshold the elastic scattering via virtual photoexcitation of the nucleus can be approximated by extrapolating the real part of the Giant Dipole Resonance amplitude along a Lorentzian curve. Coulomb corrections to Delbrück scattering seem to play a small role at 6.5 MeV.