Photoproduction of high-energy neutrons in thick targets by electrons in the energy range 150 to 270 MeV

Photoneutron spectra with energies greater than 12 MeV produced by electrons incident on a thick lead target have been measured for primary electron energies between 150 and 266 MeV and at a fixed angle of 90 ° to the beam axis. Measurements of the neutron yield have furthermore been performed at a primary energy of 234 MeV as a function of target depth for the same lead target and as a function of the mass number for C, Al, Cu, Cd and Pb targets. The results were obtained with three independent neutron detectors: two proton recoil counters and one time-of-flight set-up. The high-energy regions of the spectra are compared with the predictions of the phenomenological quasi-deuteron model and a satisfactory agreement in shape and scale of the spectra is found. Additional high-energy neutrons from pion reabsorption processes were observed at electron energies of 234 and 266 MeV.