The (nth, α) reaction on 147Sm, 151, 153Eu and Yb isotopes

The (n, α) reaction has been studied using the highly pure thermal neutron beam from the 87m curved neutron guide at the Grenoble high flux reactor. The ¹⁴⁷Sm(n, α)¹⁴⁴Nd reaction showed up five lines corresponding to the ground and the first four excited states of the final nucleus. It is shown that ≈53 % of the 581 μb (n, α) cross section comes from the neutron capture by a bound level of the ¹⁴⁸Sm compound nucleus. The 8.7 ± 3 μb cross section of ¹⁵¹Eu(n, α)¹⁴⁸Pm seems to consist principally of at least two lines corresponding to the ground and the second excited states of ¹⁴⁸Pm. The ¹⁵³Eu(n, α)¹⁴⁹Pm cross section for thermal neutrons is ≦ 1 μb. The lower limits of (n, α) thermal neutron cross section values on ytterbium isotopes are ≈ 20 to 40 times lower than the published data.