Determination of the 193Ir(n, 2n) reaction cross section and correction methodology for the 191Ir(n, γ) contamination

The cross section of the Ir-193(n, 2n)Ir-192 reaction has been determined by means of the activation technique, relative to the Al-27(n, alpha) and Au-197(n, 2n) reference reactions cross sections, at neutron beam energies ranging from 10 to 21 MeV. The quasi-monoenergetic neutron beams were produced at the 5.5 MV Tandem T11/25 Accelerator Laboratory of NCSR "Demokritos" via the H-2(d, n) and H-3(d, n) reactions. The induced gamma-ray activity of the irradiated target and reference foils was measured with high resolution HPGe detectors. In order to correct for the contribution of the Ir-191(n, gamma)Ir-192 reaction, which is open to low energy parasitic neutrons, a recently developed analysis method was implemented and it is presented in great detail. Furthermore, cross section theoretical calculations were carried out using the EMPIRE and TALYS codes over a wide energy range.