Investigation of (n, α) Reaction Cross Sections for a Number of Structural Material Isotopes

A novel spectrometer was developed and used to measure the cross section for the (n, α) reaction at the Institute for Physics and Power Engineering. Direct measurements of the alpha particles yielded from isotopically enriched solid targets of ⁵⁰Cr, ⁵²Cr, and ⁵³Cr; ⁵⁴Fe and ⁵⁷Fe; ⁶⁰Ni; ⁶⁴Zn; and ⁴⁷Ti were carried out in the neutron energy range from 4.0 to 7.2 MeV. For some of the isotopes, the (n, α) reaction cross sections for neutron energies below 14 MeV were measured for the first time. The result of the comparison of new experimental data with the evaluated data from ENDF/B-VII, JENDL-4.0, JEFF-3.2, ROSFOND-2010, and BROND-3 libraries and with the experimental data of other authors is presented.