Study of excitation functions of alpha-particle induced nuclear reactions on holmium for 167Tm production

Tm-167 is a candidate radioisotope for both nuclear medicine diagnostics and therapy due to its emitted Auger-electrons, low energy X- and gamma-rays. In the frame of a systematic study of excitation functions for production of medically relevant radioisotopes by charged particle induced reactions on rare earths, the Ho-165(alpha,2n)Tm-167 reaction and the Ho-165(alpha,n)Tm-168, Ho-165(alpha,3n)Tm-166, Ho-165(alpha,4n)Tm-165 side reactions were measured up to 40 MeV by the stacked foil irradiation technique and gamma-ray spectroscopy. The measured results were compared to the ALICE-IPPE and EMPIRE-II theoretical curves. Thick target yields, impurity levels and specific activities were deduced and compared with the same parameters for other charged particle production routes of Tm-167. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.