Investigation of activation cross-sections of proton induced nuclear reactions on natMo up to 40 MeV: New data and evaluation

Highlights: ► Excitation function measurement of proton induced reactions on molybdenum up to 40 MeV. ► Model code calculations with EMPIRE, ALICE and TALYS. ► Integral production yield calculation. ► Medical radioisotope production; 99mTc and 99Mo. ► Monitor reactions. - Abstract: Cross-sections of proton induced nuclear reactions on natural molybdenum have been studied in the frame of a systematic investigation of charged particle induced nuclear reactions on metals for different applications. The excitation functions of 93mTc, 93gTc(m+), 94mTc, 94gTc, 95mTc, 95gTc, 96gTc(m+), 99mTc, 90Mo(cum), 93mMo, 99Mo(cum), 90Nb(cum), 92mNb, 95mNb, 95gNb, 96Nb and 88Zr(cum), 89Zr(cum) were measured up to 40 MeV proton energy by a using stacked foil technique and activation method. The main goals of this work were to study the production possibility of the medically important 99mTc and its 99Mo parent nucleus, to get experimental data for accelerator technology, for monitoring of proton beam, for thin layer activation technique and for testing nuclear reaction theories. The experimental data were compared with critically analysed published data and with the results of model calculations, obtained by using the ALICE-IPPE, EMPIRE-II and TALYS codes.