Measurement of cross section of (n, γ) reaction for, iodine, sodium and vanadium in the energy range 1 keV to 4 MeV using accelerator based neutron source

The cross sections of I-127(n, gamma)I-128, Na-23(n, gamma)Na-24 and V-51(n, gamma)V-52 reactions for Iodine, sodium and vanadium were measured at continuous energy spectrum using a Microtron accelerator based neutron source. In this case, the bremsstrahlung radiation emitted by impinging 6 MeV electrons on the e-gamma primary target (tungsten) was allowed to fall on the gamma-n secondary target (beryllium) to produce continuous neutrons. The optimization of bremsstrahlung and neutron producing targets along with their spectra were estimated using FLUKA code. The cross sections of I-127(n, gamma)I-128, Na-23(n, gamma)Na-24 and V-51(n, gamma)V-52 reactions over the neutron energy from 1 keV to 4 MeV have been also calculated using the TALYS-1.2 and EMPIRE nuclear model codes. The variations of the cross sections with the level densities and effective imaginary potentials were studied to obtain the best fit of the excitation function. It is observed that the experimental cross sections for iodine, sodium and vanadium are in good agreement with the TALYS-1.2 and EMPIRE codes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.