Production of α emitters in interactions of 86 MeV/u 12C on targets of mass 166–186

Cross sections, angular distributions, and recoil ranges have been measured for rare earth α emitters produced in the interaction of ¹²C at 1 GeV with medium targets at CERN. The salient features of the experimental data for the production of residues as much as 30 mass units lighter than the target are reasonably well reproduced by a mechanism of intra-nuclear cascade.