Development of an Ionization Chamber for the Measurement of the 16O(n,α)13C Cross-Section at the CERN n_TOF Facility

Abstract

The 16O(n,α)13C reaction, as the inverse reaction of the astrophysically important 13C(n,α)16O reaction, is proposed to be measured at the neutron time-of-flight (n_TOF) facility of CERN. To this purpose, a Double Frisch Grid Ionization Chamber (DFGIC) containing the oxygen atoms as a component in the counting gas has been developed and a prototype was constructed at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf(HZDR), in Germany. The first in-beam tests of the detector have been performed in November 2017 in the first (EAR1) and in April 2018 in the second (EAR2) experimental areas of the n_TOF at facility.