The p + 9Be(thin target) reaction as a source of quasi-monoenergetic neutrons

Abstract

The cyclotron driven fast quasi-monoenergetic neutron source based on the p+ 9Be (thin target) reaction was studied at the proton energy around 30 MeV Due to higher melting point of Be, the p+ 9Be(thin), reaction could be considered as an alternative to the most used p+Li(thin) neutron source, providing a similar quasi-monoenergetic neutron spectrum at significantly higher neutron output owing to advance in higher incident proton beam current. The neutron spectrum measured by the time-of-flight method agrees with other experimental data and indicates dominant contribution of ground and first excited states leading to only two peaks, separated by some 2–3 MeV, in the p+thin 9Be neutron spectrum.