Determination of neutron capture cross section of 164Dy (n,)¹⁶⁵ Dy reaction at 0.0334 eV using TRIGA reactor

Abstract In this study, experimental neutron capture cross section for the reaction 164Dy(n, γ )165Dy at 0.0334 eV was measured for the first time using monochromatic neutrons coming out of a high resolution neutron diffractometer at the BAEC TRIGA Research Reactor (BTRR), Dhaka, Bangladesh. The 197Au(n, γ )198Au monitor reaction was used to determine the effective neutron flux. The activities of the irradiated target and monitors were measured nondestructively using the HPGe detector coupled with the digital gamma-ray spectrometry system. The full energy photo peak detection efficiency curve of the detector was constructed using standard gamma-ray emitting sources and this curve was used to acquire efficiencies of the detector at different required energies. Using the well-known neutron activation formula, the neutron capture cross-sections of 164Dy(n, γ )165Dy reaction were obtained 2322 ± 140 barn at 0.0334 eV. The cross section at 0.0334 eV is 4.3%, 4.5% and 3.15% higher than the evaluated values extracted from the ENDF/B-VII.1, ROSFOND and JENDL-4.0, respectively.