Low energy 3He activation analyses for carbon and oxygen

A. Pape (1) , A. Chevallier (1) , J.C. Sens (1) , R. Armbruster (1)

1 IReS - Institut de Recherches Subatomiques

Radiations from 11C and 18p produced in the 3He activation of carbon and oxygen were used to detect the presence of these elements. Using targets of known composition, the cross-sections for the 3He + C → 11C and 3He + O → 18F reactions were measured as a function of energy up to 5.5 MeV. The results show that the cross sections for both reactions are of the order of tens of mb at a 3He laboratory energy as low as 2 MeV. This corresponds to a sensitivity of the order of ppm for the carbon and oxygen analyses. The 3He + N → 13N reaction, which can serve as the detecting reaction for nitrogen, was found to have much lower cross-sections (1).

Mots clés: Collisional activation; Carbon isotopes; Fluorine isotopes; Carbon 11; Fluorine 18; Helium 3; Activation analysis; Oxygen; Cross sections

Domaines: Articles anciens; Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

A. Pape, A. Chevallier, J.C. Sens, R. Armbruster. Low energy 3He activation analyses for carbon and oxygen. Revue de Physique Appliquée, 1969, 4 (2), pp.227-227. ⟨10.1051/rphysap:0196900402022700⟩. ⟨jpa-00243232⟩