Effective extraction of photoneutron cross-section distribution using gamma activation and reaction yield ratio method

Photoneutron cross-section (PNCS) data are important in various current and emerging applications. Although a few sophisticated methods have been developed, there is still an urgent need to study the PNCS data. In this study, we propose the extraction of PNCS distributions using a combination of gamma activation and reaction yield ratio methods. To verify the validity of the proposed extraction method, experiments for generating ^62, 64Cu and 85m,87m Sr isotopes via laser-induced photoneutron reactions were performed, and the reaction yields of these isotopes were obtained. Using the proposed extraction method, the PNCS distributions of ^63Cu and ^86Sr isotopes (leading to ^85mSr isotope production) were successfully extracted. These extracted PNCS distributions were benchmarked against available PNCS data or TALYS calculations, demonstrating the validity of the proposed extraction method. Potential applications for predicting the PNCS distributions of the 30 isotopes are further introduced. We conclude that the proposed extraction method is an effective complement to the available sophisticated methods for measuring and evaluating PNCS data.