Cross Section Measurements of Natural Molybdenum and Iridium

Cross-section measurements are an important tool in nuclear physics in predicting reaction probabilities in applications such as energy production, weapons yield, and radioactive medical isotope production. This project focused on measurements of reactions with both natural molybdenum and iridium. In the case of molybdenum, we focused on determining the cross sections for deuteron-induced reactions. This was accomplished using the stacked foil method at incident deuteron beam energies of 7 MeV and 10 MeV. Due to energy losses in the foils, we were able to determine the cross sections for a range of energies between 1 and 10 MeV. Nickel monitor foils were used to measure the deuteron beam flux. For the iridium, we focused on neutron-induced cross sections at incident neutron energies of 12.5 and 13.5 MeV. In these measurements, we used a single iridium foil sandwiched between two gold monitor foils, which provides a mechanism for normalizing to the incident neutron flux.