Secondary Neutron-Production Cross Sections from Heavy-Ion Interactions between 230 and 600 MeV/Nucleon

Abstract

Secondary neutron-production cross sections have been measured from interactions of 230 MeV/nucleon He, 400 MeV/nucleon N, 400 MeV/nucleon Kr, 400 MeV/nucleon Xe, 500 MeV/nucleon Fe, and 600 MeV/nucleon Ne interacting in a variety of elemental and composite targets. We report the double-differential production cross sections, angular distributions, energy spectra, and total cross sections from all systems. Neutron energies were measured using the time-of-flight technique and were measured at laboratory angles between 5 and 80 deg. The spectra exhibit behavior previously reported in other heavy-ion-induced neutron-production experiments, namely, a peak at forward angles near the energy corresponding to the beam velocity, with the remaining spectra generated by preequilibrium and equilibrium processes. The double-differential spectra are fitted with a moving-source parameterization. Observations on the dependence of the total cross sections on target and projectile mass are discussed.