Preparation of a 60Fe target for nuclear astrophysics experiments

An Fe-60 target for studying the Fe-60(n, gamma)Fe-61 cross-section at stellar energies was prepared using radiochemical separation techniques. In total, 7.8 x 10(15) Fe-60 atoms (777 ng) were separated from a copper beam dump for the 590 MeV proton beam of the high intensity accelerator at PSI. The final target was prepared by evaporating the iron-containing aqueous solution onto a graphite backing. With this sample the key neutron capture cross-section of Fe-60 has been measured at FZ Karlsruhe. The work is part of the ERAWAST-initiative (Exotic Radionuclides from Accelerator WAste for Science and Technology) which is aimed at extracting rare valuable radionuclides from accelerator waste by chemical means. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.