Measurements of the 40Ar(n,? γ) 41Ar radiative-capture cross section between 0.4 and 14.8 MeV

摘要

The 40 Ar(n,? γ ) 41 Ar neutron capture cross section has been measured between 0.4 and 14.8 MeV neutron energy using the activation technique. The data are important for estimating backgrounds in argon-based neutrino and dark-matter detectors and in the neutrino-less double-beta decay search GERDA, which uses liquid argon as cooling and shielding medium. For the first time the 40 Ar(n,? γ ) 41 Ar cross section has been measured for neutron energies above 1 MeV. Our results are compared to the evaluation ENDF/B-VII.1 and the calculated prediction TENDL-2013. The latter agrees very well with the present results.