Abstract
We have measured the neutron energy spectrum of the () reaction at a proton energy of 2582 keV, 8 keV above the reaction threshold. At this energy the resulting neutron spectrum resembles almost perfectly a Maxwellian distribution at a thermal energy of . Since all neutrons are emitted in a forward cone of 140 opening angle, this reaction can be used for neutron activation measurements similar to the (p,n) reaction, which is known for producing a thermal spectrum with . Measured neutron capture cross sections at and can be used to interpolate to , which characterizes the dominant neutron exposure during s-process nucleosynthesis in thermally pulsing low-mass AGB stars. In a first application of this new method the Maxwellian-averaged neutron capture cross section of was measured to be at .
- Received 27 July 2004
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.71.025803
©2005 American Physical Society