Study of activation cross sections of proton induced reactions on ${}^{nat}$Ba and ${}^{nat}$Ce near their threshold energy regions

Activation cross-sections of the nuclear reactions ${}^{nat}$Ba(p,x)${}^{135,132g}$La, ${}^{135m}$Ba and ${}^{nat}$Ce(p,x)${}^{142,139,138m}$Pr, ${}^{141,139,137m}$Ce have been measured experimentally at the MGC-20 cyclotron, Cairo, Egypt, from their respective threshold energies up to about 14.7 MeV. Stacked foil irradiation technique and high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy were used. A comparison between the experimental and theoretical data derived from the nuclear model codes EMPIRE and TALYS (in the form of the TENDL library) was performed. The agreement in the low-energy region is fairly good. Integral yields of the produced radioisotopes were estimated from the present cross-section data and the results are discussed in terms of their production possibilities.