Inelastic neutron scattering from carbon, iron, yttrium and lead

Abstract

Double-differential cross sections and angular distributions of inelastic neutron scattering on 12C, 56Fe, 89Y and 208Pb have been measured at 96 MeV at The Svedberg Laboratory, Uppsala, Sweden. Results on elastic neutron scattering at 96 MeV from these nuclei have been reported previously [1–3]. To obtain the inelastic cross sections, a forward-folding technique has been applied. A physically reasonable trial spectrum has been folded with the response function of the detector system and the output has been compared with the experimental data. To create the trial spectrum, a Gaussian has been used for the elastic part and the PRECO code [4–7] for the inelastic part. Other models were tested for the pre-equilibrium contribution and the method was found to be model independent. The response function of the detector setup has been obtained experimentally at the smallest possible angle, in this case at 9 deg. The resulting preliminary inelastic scattering data cover an excitation energy range up to 45 MeV and the angular intervals 28 to 58 degrees for 12C, 26 to 65 degrees for 56Fe and 26 to 52 degrees for 89Y and 208Pb. The preliminary results are discussed and compared to several model codes as well as existing experimental data for (n,n′x), (n,p′x) and (p,p′x). Possible improvements of the analysis are also discussed.