Activation cross sections of proton and deuteron induced nuclear reactions on holmium and erbium, related to the production of $^{161}$Er and $^{160}$Er medical isotopes

TL;DR

This study measured activation cross sections for proton and deuteron induced reactions on holmium to produce medical isotopes $^{161}$Er and $^{160}$Er, providing new experimental data and comparing it with theoretical models.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental cross section data for $^{162}$Er(p,x)$^{161,160}$Er and $^{162}$Er(d,x)$^{161,160}$Er reactions, enhancing understanding of isotope production routes.

Findings

New cross section data for $^{162}$Er reactions were obtained.

Experimental results were compared with TALYS/TENDL-2015 predictions.

Data supports optimized production of medical isotopes $^{161}$Er and $^{160}$Er.

Abstract

Experimental excitation functions for long-lived products in proton induced reactions were measured with the activation method in the 37-65 MeV energy range on natural holmium. Stacked foil irradiation technique and high resolution gamma spectrometry were used in order to measure cross-section data for the production of $^{161}$Er, $^{160}$Er and $^{159,157}$Dy. For comparison of the production routes of medically related $^{161}$Er and $^{160}$Er radioisotopes new experimental cross section data were deduced for the $^{162}$Er(p,x)$^{161,160}$Er and $^{162}$Er(d,x)$^{161,160}$Er reactions by re-evaluating gamma-ray spectra from earlier measurements. No earlier data were found in the literature for these reactions. The experimental data are compared with results of TALYS theoretical code reported in TENDL-2015.