NUCLIDE PRODUCTION BY PROTON-INDUCED REACTIONS ON ELEMENTS -LESS-THAN-OR-EQUAL-TO-Z-LESS-THAN-OR-EQUAL-TO-29) IN THE ENERGY-RANGE FROM 800 TO 2600 MEV

In the course of a systematic investigation of proton-induced reaction s for p energies between 800 and 2600 MeV, the target elements O, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zr, Rh, Nb, Ba and Au were irra diated with 800 MeV protons at LAMPF/Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nd with 1200, 1600 and 2600 MeV protons at Laboratoire National Satume /Saclay. The 1600 MeV irradiations covered in addition the target elem ents C, N, Rb, Sr, Y. The study was designed to measure production cro ss sections of radionuclides by gamma-spectrometry and by accelerator mass spectrometry and of stable rare gas isotopes by conventional mass spectrometry. A detailed analysis of secondary particle fields was pe rformed for targets of different thicknesses. Corrections for interfer ences by secondaries were made on the basis of secondary particle spec tra as calculated by the code HET in the form of the HERMES code syste m and experimental and theoretical excitation functions of p- and n-in duced reactions. Here, about 700 cross sections for the production of radionuclides from target elements Z less than or equal to 29 (Cu) by more than 200 reactions are presented. In addition, cross sections for the production of stable He and Ne isotopes from iron at a proton ene rgy of 600 MeV are given. Together with earlier work of our group, the re now exists a consistent set of excitation functions from threshold energies up to 2600 MeV. A comparison of the new data with earlier mea surements from other authors exhibited a considerable lack of reliabil ity for many of the earlier data. On the basis of the new data, the qu ality of existing semiempirical formulas for the calculation of spalla tion cross sections is discussed. In a more physical approach, the pro duction of residual nuclides is calculated in the framework of an INC/ E model using Monte Carlo techniques for energies between 100 MeV and 5 GeV and compared with the experimental results.