Measurement of Neutron Yield of ⁹Be(d, n) Reaction With Thick Target

The experimental data of neutron yield for deuteron of several hundreds keV to a few MeV bombarding thick beryllium target are very important for small accelerator based neutron generation, and those data are not fully available so far. Neutron yield, angular distribution and total yield of D-Be reaction with thick target were measured on the 4.5 MV Van de Graaff accelerator at Peking University with deuterons at the energies from 0.35 MeV to 2 MeV. Two BF₃ long counters were employed to measure neutron fluxes. One was set to the different directions and another at a fixed position for the normalization. The scattering backgrounds were corrected, and the usable ranges of experimental data and formula were extended to 0.2 MeV at the low energy side. The results were compared with existing data and empirical formula. The data of this experiment and existing data coincide well in the comparable range.