Investigation of the deuteron induced nuclear reaction cross sections on lutetium up to 50 MeV: review of production routes for 177Lu, 175Hf and 172Hf via charged particle activation

In a systematic study of light charged particle induced nuclear reactions we investigated the excitation functions of deuteron induced nuclear reactions on natural lutetium targets. Experimental excitation functions up to 50 MeV on high purity natLu were determined using the standard stacked foil activation technique. High resolution off-line gamma-ray spectrometry was applied to assess the activity of each foil. From the measured activity direct and/or cumulative elemental cross-section data for production of 171,172,173,175Hf, 171,172,173,174g,176m,177m,177gLu and 169Yb radioisotopes were determined. The experimental data were compared to results of the TALYS theoretical code taken from the TENDL databases and results of our calculations using the ALICE-IPPE-D and the EMPIRE-D codes. No earlier experimental data were found in the literature. Thick target yields for the investigated radionuclides were calculated from the measured excitation functions.