Production of medically useful bromine isotopes via alpha-particle induced nuclear reactions

¹ Forschungszentrum Jülich, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, INM-5: Nuclear Chemistry, 52428 Jülich, Germany
² Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Cyclotron Laboratory, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

^a e-mail: b.scholten@fz-juelich.de

Published online: 13 September 2017

Abstract

The cross sections of α-particle induced reactions on arsenic leading to the formation of ^76,77,78Br were measured from their respective thresholds up to 37 MeV. Thin sediments of elemental arsenic powder were irradiated together with Al degrader and Cu monitor foils using the established stacked-foil technique. For determination of the effective α-particle energies and of the effective beam current through the stacks the cross-section ratios of the monitor nuclides ⁶⁷Ga/⁶⁶Ga were used. This should help resolve discrepancies in existing literature data. Comparison of the data with the available excitation functions shows some slight energy shifts as well as some differences in curve shapes. The calculated thick target yields indicate, that ⁷⁷Br can be produced in the energy range E_α = 25 → 17 MeV free of isotopic impurities in quantities sufficient for medical application.