Eur. Phys. J. A (2016) 52: 195
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2016-16195-9

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Photo-neutron reaction cross-sections for ^natMo in the bremsstrahlung end-point energies of 12-16 and 45-70 MeV

¹ Radiochemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 400085, Mumbai, India
² Department of Physics, Kyungpook National University, 702-701, Daegu, Republic of Korea
³ Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Department of Nuclear Sciences and applications, IAEA, Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 100, A-1400, Vienna, Austria
⁴ Institute of Radiation Physics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, 01328, Dresden, Germany
⁵ Division of Advanced Nuclear Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, 790-784, Pohang, Republic of Korea

^* e-mail: naikhbarc@yahoo.com

Received: 27 March 2016
Revised: 30 May 2016
Accepted: 10 June 2016
Published online: 21 July 2016

Abstract

The ^natMo(,xn)^{90, 91, 99}Mo reaction cross-sections were experimentally determined for the bremsstrahlung end-point energies of 12, 14, 16, 45, 50, 55, 60 and 70MeV by activation and off-line -ray spectrometric technique and using the 20MeV electron linac (ELBE) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden, Germany, and the 100MeV electron linac at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL), Pohang, Korea. The ^natMo(,xn)^{88, 89, 90, 91, 99}Mo reaction cross-sections as a function of photon energy were also calculated using the computer code TALYS 1.6. The flux-weighted average cross-sections were obtained from the literature data and the calculated values of TALYS based on mono-energetic photons and are found to be in general agreement with the present results. The flux-weighted average experimental and theoretical cross-sections for the ^natMo(,xn)^{88, 89, 90, 91, 99}Mo reactions increase with the bremsstrahlung end-point energy, which indicates the role of excitation energy. After a certain energy, the individual ^natMo(,xn) reaction cross-sections decrease with the increase of bremsstrahlung energy due to opening of other reactions, which indicates sharing of energy in different reaction channels. The ¹⁰⁰Mo(, n) reaction cross-section is important for the production of ⁹⁹Mo , which is a probable alternative to the ⁹⁸Mo(n,) and ²³⁵U(n, f ) reactions.