Investigation of photoneutron reactions close to and above the neutron emission threshold in the rare earth region

TL;DR

This study measures photoneutron cross sections near the neutron emission threshold in certain rare earth isotopes using photoactivation, providing experimental data to compare with statistical models.

Contribution

It offers new experimental data on photoneutron reactions in rare earth isotopes near the threshold, aiding the validation of theoretical models.

Findings

Measured photoneutron cross sections for specific isotopes.

Compared experimental results with statistical model calculations.

Provided data relevant for nuclear reaction modeling.

Abstract

We have investigated the photoneutron cross section of the isotopes $^{148,150}$Nd, $^{154}$Sm, and $^{154,160}$Gd close to the neutron emission threshold in photoactivation experiments at the Darmstadt superconducting electron linear accelerator S-DALINAC. Naturally composed targets were activated with a high-intensity bremsstrahlung beam at various energies and the reaction yields have been determined by measuring the activity of the produced radioactive isotopes with HPGe detectors. The results are compared to two different statistical model calculations.