Nd141and Its Production in the (n,2n) Reaction

Abstract

Several properties of the production and decay of ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{141}$ from the nuclear reactions ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{142}\mathrm{}(n,2n)\mathrm{}{\mathrm{Nd}}^{141g}$, ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{141m}$ have been studied The parameters measured were the isomeric yield ratio, the half-lives of the isomeric state and the ground state, the positron branching ratio of the ground state decay, and the ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{142}\mathrm{}(n,2n)\mathrm{}{\mathrm{Nd}}^{141}$ cross section. The values obtained for these quantities are 0.689±0.069, 64.7±1.3 sec, 2.42±0.09 h, 2.73%±0.27%, and 1650±165 mb, respectively. In addition, an upper limit on the ratio of the ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{142}(n,\alpha ){\mathrm{Ce}}^{139}$ cross section to the ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{142}\mathrm{}(n,2n)\mathrm{}{\mathrm{Nd}}^{141}$ cross section was determined to be 1.5×${10}^{-3\mathrm{}}$. This leads to an upper limit on the ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{142}(n,\alpha )$ cross section of approximately 2.5 mb. This work was performed using 14.7-MeV neutrons from the $\mathrm{T}\mathrm{}(d,n)\mathrm{}{\mathrm{He}}^4$ reaction.