Inelastic Scattering of 14MeV Neutrons by Heavy Nuclei

Energy spectra of neutrons scattered inelastically from natural samples of Ta, W, Au, Hg, TI, Pb and Bi have been studied at an incident energy of 14MeV, using time-of-flight technique. Angular distributions were also measured for Ta and Bi. The energy spectra from 2MeV to 4MeV were found to be qualitatively consistent with the prediction from statistical theory taking account of effects of nuclear pairing and shell structure. The Fermi gas level density parameter and the nuclear temperature were obtained by considering the contribution of the (n,2n) reaction. The variation of level density parameter plotted against mass number was found to agree with the trend predicted theoretically by Newton. Angular distributions proved to be symmetric about 90° and the spin cut-off parameter was estimated to be about 5.8 for Ta and 4.3 for Bi. Cross sections for the (n,n′2n) and (n,2n) reactions were obtained.