I am simulating the production of ^{43}\textrm{Sc} through the reaction ^{40}\textrm{Ca}(\alpha,p)^{43}\textrm{Sc}. The study is motivated by aneutronic fusion, where fusion alpha particles may interact with surrounding materials and induce secondary nuclear reactions.
Setup
Proton and alpha beams incident on a pure ^{40}\textrm{Ca} target.
Beam energy chosen near the experimental peak of the cross section.
Isotope production scored using RESNUCLEi.
Questions
Is RESNUCLEi the correct scoring method to obtain the production of a specific isotope such as ^{43}\textrm{Sc}?
What is the correct way to convert the RESNUCLEi output to yield per incident alpha particle?
The predicted ^{43}\textrm{Sc} yield is extremely low even near the cross-section peak. Even when changing the beam energy or target thickness, the maximum count of scandium does not change significantly. Could this be due to model limitations, insufficient statistics, or incorrect normalization?
Any guidance on estimating isotope production from proton- and alpha-induced reactions in fusion-relevant conditions would be appreciated, particularly on how to correctly calculate the yield of radioisotopes produced in these reactions.
Yes, this is the correct way to score the isotopes.
The output is per primary particle, in your case already per incident alpha particle.
(i) What would be your reference/benchmark point for mentioning that extremely low production of ^{43}Sc?
(ii) Your 25 MeV alpha beam stops in the first 100 um of material, and your Ca target is 25 mm thick. Slight changes in thickness or energy will not change the outcome, unless you change the orders of magnitude for these variables.
(iii) You are also using a LAM-BIAS card with the DCDRBIAS option, but with no second card to define the direction - rendering the usage of the card pointless.
You are on the right track - my main suggestion to you is to investigate why would you expect a higher yield? With the exception of protons, ^{43}Sc has the highest yield from the simulation.
Dear @dprelipc,
The thickness of the calcium we have now defined is 100 micron (earlier it was 2.5 mm). However, the alpha particles seem to be penetrating through the target without fully stopping. In this case, we are not getting any output for RESNUCLEi (as shown in the attached image), which makes it appear that there is little or no interaction with the target. How should I correctly read and interpret the outputs in the sum.lis and tab.lis files for RESNUCLEi? My aim is to study the production of radioisotopes from the ^{40}\mathrm{Ca}(\alpha,p)^{43}\mathrm{Sc} reaction and calculate its yield. Could you suggest the correct workflow to obtain this? Thank you.
The reason why your file is empty is because of your additional AUXSCORE card. Remove it, and you will have the output as before.
If you want to bias/artificially increase the yield, you can use a LAM-BIAS card, as you are now using in your input file in your second answer.
To interpret the results of the [RESNUCLEi card](file:///usr/local/fluka/doc/html/chapters/description_input/description_options/resnucle.html), please have a look at note 10. There is a python script fluresnucle_formatter.py which can help you.
That being said, you are already using the correct workflow to obtain what you want, and the current output already confirms this (see below). Again, my question to you is: why do you expect to see a higher yield than this?
