Role of p-induced population of medium mass(A $\sim$ 150) neutron rich nuclei

Abstract

Excitation functions were measured by stacked-foil activation technique for the ${}^{150}$Nd(p, xpyn) reaction using 97.65 enriched ${}^{150}$Nd target. Measurement up to $\sim$50 above barrier and down to 18 below the barrier was performed using proton beam energy (E${}_p$) of 7 - 15 MeV from VECC Cyclotron. The yield of suitable ${\hat{I}}^3$ rays emitted following the decay of relevant evaporation residues was determined using a 50 High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector.(p,n) cross section was found to follow the expected trend with a maximum value of 63.7(4.9)mb at E${}_p$ $\sim$ 8.6 MeV. (p,2n) cross section gradually increased with E${}_p$ and had maximum contribution to the total reaction cross section after E${}_p$ $\sim$ 9.0 MeV. (p, p${}^{\prime }$n) reaction channel also showed a reasonable yield with a threshold of E${}_p$ $\sim$ 12.0 MeV. The experimental data were corroborated with statistical model calculations using different codes, viz., CASCADE, ALICE/91 and EMPIRE3.1. All the calculations using a suitable set of global parameters could reproduce the excitation function fairly well in the present energy range.