Excitation function of proton-induced production of 160Tb

The role of 160 Tb is crucial in post-detonation analysis, specifically in nuclear forensics. This study investigated the 160 Gd(p,n) 160 Tb reaction. The excitation function is assessed through activation analysis for 11 different proton beam energies in the 4 MeV to 18 MeV energy range. The multilayer stack target was irradiated by an external proton beam obtained from the C18/18 cyclotron, which is located at the A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (AANL), Yerevan, Armenia. Detailed spectroscopic analysis of the final radioactive materials was carried out using an HPGe detector. The experimentally measured values were compared with theoretical calculations obtained from TALYS 1.96 and EMPIRE 3.2 codes and the MENDL data library. This comparative analysis assessed how well the observed results aligned with theoretical predictions and evaluated the predictive power of each computational model.