Production of ¹⁶O(³He,p)¹⁸F and ²⁰Ne(d,α)¹⁸F Short-Lived Radioisotopes with a Plasma Focus

Abstract

Mather type plasma focus with the bank energy, 150 kJ (30 kV, 333 μF), was studied for the induced activity of ¹⁸F, a short-lived radioisotopes which is a β⁺ emitter with 511 keV of gamma rays and has a half-life t _1/2 = 110 min, through ¹⁶O(³He,p)¹⁸F and ²⁰Ne(d,α)¹⁸F nuclear reactions. The results of simulated numerical computations show that activities of 3.786 × 10¹⁰ Bq and 6.632 × 10¹⁰ Bq were found for ¹⁶O(³He,p)¹⁸F and ²⁰Ne(d,α)¹⁸F reactions, respectively. The calculations were carried out for the same initial and final energies conditions, when Plasma focus works with 150 kJ at the repetition rate of 1 Hz and for 120 min of running time. According to the simulated results, the activity of ²⁰Ne(d,α)¹⁸F had an increase because the projectile ion mass “deuteron” was lighter than the ³He which resulted in the higher induced voltage and the number of projectile ions.