Development of irradiation-resistant enriched 12C targets for astrophysical 12C(α,γ)16O reaction measurements

The production of irradiation-resistant enriched 12C target is one of the key technologies in the direct measurement of the 12C(α,γ)16O reaction at energies of astrophysical interest. In this work, we produced the enriched Ti12C targets on Ta substrates via the filter cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technology. The target stability under the bombardment of a high-intensity 4He beam was investigated by monitoring the γ-ray yields of the 12C(p,γ)13N reaction regularly. A 25% deterioration of 12C in the target was observed after bombardment by a 740 keV, 500 μA 4He2+ beam with a charge of 280 C, which is stronger than the implanted targets developed before. Furthermore, the 13C/12C ratio in the Ti12C target was measured to be (1.1±0.3)×10−4, which can meet the requirement of the 12C(α,γ)16O measurement at the China JinPing underground Laboratory (CJPL).