Helium production for 0.8–2.5 GeV proton induced spallation reactions, damage induced in metallic window materials

Production cross-sections for neutrons and charged particles as well as excitation energy distributions in spallation reactions were measured recently by the NESSI-collaboration and have been employed to test different intra nuclear cascade models and the subsequent evaporation. The INCL/GEMINI code, which describes best the experimental data has been employed to calculate the damage cross-sections in Fe and Ta as well as the He/dpa ratio as a function of proton energy. For the same amount of neutron production in a typical target of a spallation neutron source the proton beam induced radiation damage in an Fe window is shown to decrease almost linearly with proton energy. For heavier materials such as Ta a similar decrease of the radiation damage is found only for energies above about 3 GeV.