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The disintegration of neon by fast neutrons

University of British Columbia

A normal mixture of the stable neon isotopes, Ne²⁰ 90.51%, Ne²¹ 0.28%, Ne²² 9.21%, has been bombarded with 2.68 Mev. neutrons from the reaction H²(dn)He³ . A gridded ion chamber, with 1 litre sensitive volume, filled with neon to 6¼ atmospheres pressure, was used to detect disintegrations. Pulses from the ion chamber were amplified, arid recorded on an 18-channel kicksorter. The ground-state transition of Ne²⁰(nα)O¹⁷ was observed, with 1% counting statistics. The Q,-value was measured as -0.77±0.08 Mev., in fair agreement with previously reported results. Careful search failed to reveal any evidence of excited states in O¹⁷. A level at 0.87 Mev. is known, and one at 1.6 Mev. is suspected, but calculation of barrier penetrability for alpha particles corresponding to these levels indicates that they are not likely to be observed at the neutron energy used. A second reaction, with disintegration energy corresponding to a Q-value of +0.48±0.10 Mev. was also observed. It was not clear whether this reaction was N¹⁴(np)C¹⁴ or Ne²¹(nα)O¹⁸. This point is to be clarified by further investigation.

Text

2012-02-27

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/40950

Physics

University of British Columbia

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