Measurement of the neutron-capture cross section on 63,65Cu between 0.4 and 7.5 MeV

Copper is currently being used as a cooling and shielding material in most experimental searches for 0$\nu $$\beta $$\beta $ decay. In order to accurately interpret background events in these experiments, the cross section of neutron-induced reactions on copper must be known. The purpose of this work was to measure the cross section of the $^{{63},{65}}$Cu(n,$\gamma $)$^{{64},{66}}$Cu reactions. Data were collected through the activation method at a range of energies from approximately 0.4 MeV to 7.5 MeV, employing the neutron production reactions $^3$H(p,n)$^3$He and $^2$H(d,n)$^3$He. Previous data were limited to energies below approximately 3 MeV. The results are compared to predictions from the nuclear data libraries ENDF/B-VII.1 and TENDL-2014.