Survey of Tritium-Producing Nuclear Reactions

Abstract

($p, t$), ($d, t$), and ($\alpha , t$) reactions have been investigated throughout the periodic table by bombarding stacked metal foils and determining directly the tritium produced in the reaction. In the ($\alpha , t$) reactions, there is conclusive evidence that most of the tritons are produced with high energies, thus indicating the presence of direct interaction processes. The curve representing the integrated cross section vs $Z$ of the target rises with decreasing $Z$. This, and the appearance of low-energy peaks in the individual excitation functions of low-$Z$ targets indicate that at low and intermediate values of $Z$ the relative number of low-energy tritons increases. These tritons are probably the product of a compound-nucleus mechanism. For the ($p, t$) and ($d, t$) reactions the same compound-nucleus and direct-interaction effects are noticed.