Measuring Low Levels of 14 N Using the 14 N(d,n)15 O Reaction

Presenter Information

Christopher Prokop, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
John Clymer, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Nick Compton, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Adam Hanson, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Henry Dam, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow

Location

CSU 253/4/5

Start Date

5-4-2010 10:00 AM

End Date

5-4-2010 12:00 PM

Student's Major

Physics and Astronomy, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Technology

Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Mentor's Name

Andrew D. Roberts

Mentor's Department

Physics and Astronomy

Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Description

MNSU’s Applied Nuclear Science Laboratory has restored and is now operating a Van de Graaf particle accelerator. Since the project started in 2007, we have successfully rebuilt the accelerator and continue to optimize its performance. We have successfully in repaired the stabilization controls and have calibrated the machines energy using the characteristic resonances at 340 keV from the 19F(p,α)16O* reaction.

This year’s research has expanded the range of particle beams the machine can produce. The accelerator has been equipped with a tank of deuterium allowing the production of a deuteron beam. We report on the production of a confirmed deuteron beam using the 14N(d,n)O15 reaction and beam dynamic analysis. The nuclear reaction creates 15O from the deuterons colliding with 14N. As the 15O then decays into 15N, positrons are emitted, the annihilation creates measurable gamma ray emissions. Due to the efficiency of detecting counts of decay products (1 in 1016 atoms) this method can detect very low amounts of nitrogen in a given sample. This added capability will allow for further research and experiments including investigation of other deuteron reactions and neutron production from deuteron breakup – which allows for a range of neutron physics including material science experiments.