The mechanism of the 7Li(d, 2[alpha])n reaction from Ed = 3 to 15 MeV

Abstract

The 7Li(d, 2[alpha])n reaction proceeds almost entirely through excitation and sequential decay of the 16.63 and 16.92 MeV levels in 8Be, for incident energies 1 to 13 MeV above their threshold. The energy dependence for forming these levels with the neutron emitted at 0[deg] is approximately that predicted assuming the neutron is a spectator from the incident deuteron. None of the individual spectra, the angular dependence of the cross section at fixed Ed, or the bombarding-energy-dependence of the cross section for forming the levels is consistent with the involvement of a spectator neutron from the 7Li target.