Neutron-induced reaction cross-section measurements for nuclear astrophysics using 3 MV particle accelerator

Investigation of neutron-induced activation cross-sections is gaining considerable interest due to their potential applications in nuclear technology, nuclear astrophysics, dosimetry, nuclear medicine, industry apart from the Nuclear Physics. These reaction cross-section measurements are extremely important to understand the nuclear astrophysical physical process which requires improved nuclear data and higher precision reaction cross-sections. The advances in accelerator technology coupled with state-of-the-art detection systems have provided scope of studying neutron induced reaction cross-sections, neutron activation analysis and low energy nuclear astrophysics. The 3 MV Pelletron Accelerator (9SDH-4, NEC) has been established at GGV, Bilaspur for providing accelerator based research tools in interdisciplinary research areas using ion beams and an attempt is initiated for the expansion of facility for neutron related activities. For this purpose accelerator includes a high current TORVIS and SNICS-II ion sources. The TORVIS source provides negative ions of hydrogen and helium whereas SNICS-II is used for heavy elements producing negative ions. The unique feature of the accelerator is a TORVIS ion source which can deliver proton beam up to 6 MeV at intensities of 50 microamperes on target