Excitation functions for 197Au(α,xn) reactions in the 10-40 MeV energy range

The stacked foil technique has been used to measure the excitation functions for the reactions 197Au(α,chin), chi=1 to 3. A beam of alpha-particles of energy approx.=40 MeV has been made to bombard a stack of ten gold foils. The thickness of the gold foils was selected so as to obtain an energy degradation of the order of 2 to 4 MeV. The induced activities in each foil were followed using a HPGe system. Theoretical excitation functions for these reactions based on the equilibrium decay model do not agree, in general, with the measured ones towards the high energy tails. Excitation functions have also been calculated simulating the pre-equilibrium emission by a hybrid model. The experimental excitation functions are best reproduced by taking a mixture of both the equilibrium and pre-equilibrium emissions. (orig.)