Production of High-Purity ^52gMn from ^natV Targets with Alpha Beams at Cyclotrons

Abstract

Radioisotope ^52gMn is of special interest for multimodal imaging. Using state-of-art nuclear reaction codes, we study the alternative nuclear reaction route ^natV($\alpha$,x)^52gMn in comparison with the standard production routes based upon the use of chromium targets. The integral yields of ^52gMn and contaminants have been evaluated. The main outcome of this investigation is that the ^52gMn yield of the new production route compares favorably with respect to the standard ^natCr one, and the contamination due to ⁵⁴Mn is expected to be significantly lower. The study also reveals a large spread in the cross-section data set and points out the need of more precise measurements of the reaction ^natV($\alpha$,x)^52gMn as well as the need of more refined models in nuclear reaction codes such as Talys, Empire, and Fluka.

Keywords:

• Cyclotron radionuclide production
• ^52gMn
• ⁵³Mn
• ⁵⁴Mn
• multimodal imaging
• alpha-induced reactions
• nuclear reaction modeling

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Arjan Koning, Roberto Capote, Paola Sala, and Alfredo Ferrari for stimulating discussions and insights about the use of the nuclear reaction codes. Discussions on the research subject with Laura De Nardo, Laura Meléndez-Alafort, Petra Martini, and Juan Esposito are thankfully acknowledged.

This research was carried out within the METRICS applied physics program (2018–2020/2021), approved and founded by the INFN-CSN5 (Technological Research Committee).