Nuclear Astrophysics at SARAF with LiLiT

An intense neutron source of new design, based on the 7Li(p,n)7Be reaction using a high-power Liquid-Lithium Target - LiLiT(1,2) (Fig. 1), was built at the Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility . SARAF(3). The neutrons, generated by a proton beam at a laboratory energy of ~1910 keV (~30 keV above the threshold energy Eth = 1880 keV), impinging on the thick windowless liquid-lithium target, are forward collimated with angle-integrated energy distribution similar to that of a flux of Maxwellian neutrons at a temperature of kT . 25 keV(4). An intense proton beam is required in order to generate a high neutron flux that enables measuring new cross sections that are impossible to measure by traditional techniques. For the first time, stellar-energy neutrons were produced by the SARAF high intensity proton beam and LiLiT and the Maxwellian Averaged Cross Section (MACS) of the 94Zr(n,ND)95Zr and 96Zr(n,ND)97Zr reactions were measured