A study of pre-equilibrium emission in α-induced reactions on 121,123Sb

Abstract

Excitation functions for the 121Sb (α, n)+ 123Sb(α, 3n),,21Sb(α, 2n)+ 123Sb(α, 4n), 121Sb(α, 4n), 121Sb(α, 3np), and 123Sb(α, n) reactions are measured in the energy range 30–60 MeV using the stacked foil technique. In the cases of the 121Sb(α, n)+ 123Sb(α, 3n) and 121Sb(α, 2n)+ 123Sb(α, 4n) reaction pairs, the excitation functions for individual reactions were deduced using theoretical calculations. Excitation functions are also calculated theoretically using the compound-nucleus model with and without the inclusion of a pre-equilibrium emission. As expected, inclusion of a pre-equilibrium contribution based on the exciton model along with compound-nucleus calculations using the Hauser–Feshbach formalism reproduces well the measured excitation functions. Analysis of the data indicates a preference for a first chance neutron emission over charged-particle emission, and interesting trends in the energy and mass-number dependence of the pre-equilibrium fraction are observed.