Cross sections of deuteron induced reactions on $^{nat}$Sm for production of the therapeutic radionuclide $^{145}$Sm and $^{153}$Sm

TL;DR

This study investigates the production of therapeutic radionuclides $^{145}$Sm and $^{153}$Sm via deuteron-induced reactions on natural samarium, providing experimental excitation functions and comparing them with nuclear reaction models.

Contribution

It provides new experimental excitation functions for $^{145}$Sm and $^{153}$Sm production on natural samarium using deuterons up to 50 MeV, and compares these with theoretical models.

Findings

Measured cross sections for $^{145}$Sm and $^{153}$Sm up to 50 MeV.

Comparison of experimental data with ALICE, EMPIRE, and TALYS models.

Discussion of optimal production routes for therapeutic use.

Abstract

At present, targeted radiotherapy (TR) is acknowledged to have great potential in oncology. A large list of interesting radionuclides is identified, including several radioisotopes of lanthanides, amongst them $^{145}$Sm and $^{153}$Sm. In this work the possibility of their production at a cyclotron was investigated using a deuteron beam and a samarium target. The excitation functions of the $^{nat}$Sm(d,x)$^{145153}$Sm reactions were determined for deuteron energies up to 50 MeV using the stacked-foil technique and high-resolution $\gamma$-ray spectrometry. The measured cross sections and the contributing reactions were analyzed by comparison with results of the ALICE, EMPIRE and TALYS nuclear reaction codes. A short overview and comparison of possible production routes is given.