A Thesis Submitted to School of Graduate Studies College of Natural and Computational Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Physics.

Abstract

This work studied the production cross section and yield of medically important radionuclides, such as 68Ga and 64Cu, generated during irradiation of 66Zn-target with α-projectile at ≈ 10-40 v MeV. The experimental cross-sections taken from the EXFOR database were compared with the theoretical model calculations using nuclear reaction model codes COMPLETE, TALYS1.95 (G), and EMPIRE3.2. A good agreement was achieved for the measured data and calculated production cross-section using the TALYS1.95 (G) code. The 68Ga and 64Cu yields were computed using TALYS1.95 (G) predicted cross-section data. Also, the possible isotopic impurities were identified, and their contributions were estimated. Based on the yield calculations, the production yield of 68Ga was found to be 39.6 GBq/μAh, at 28 MeV without any significant contribution from its isotopic impurities 67Ga and 66Ga; in addition a yield value of 85.9 MBq/μAh at 40 MeV was obtained for medically important 64Cu radionuclide with negligible isotopic impurities contributions from 66Cu and 62Cu radionuclides