Influence of secondary neutrons on alpha-particle induced reaction cross section measurement below the Coulomb barrier
The influence of the secondary neutrons on measurements of alpha-particle activation cross sections below the Coulomb barrier was studied for the $^\mathrm{nat}$Pt($\alpha$,x)$^\mathrm{195m}$Pt reaction. We characterized the secondary neutron field by using the particle transport simulation code PHITS, and estimated the $^\mathrm{nat}$Pt(n,x)$^\mathrm{195m}$Pt yields by using the characterized neutron spectra and the $^\mathrm{nat}$Pt(n,x)$^{195m}$Pt cross sections in the JENDL-5/A library. We confirmed that the unexpectedly high $^\mathrm{nat}$Pt($\alpha$,x)$^\mathrm{195m}$Pt cross sections below the Coulomb barrier measured by us are explained well by the $^\mathrm{nat}$Pt(n,x)$^\mathrm{195m}$Pt reaction induced by the secondary neutrons. This indicates that the secondary neutron effect is sometimes not negligible even in low energy charged-particle activation cross section measurements. We also studied the influence of the secondary light charged particles by the same approach, and confirmed that their influence is negligible.