Production of 67Ga, 68Ga by bombardment of natural zinc target with alpha and 3He particles (author's transl)

Abstract

In order to determine the optimum irradiation condition for the production of 67Ga and 68Ga, used in nuclear medicine, excitation function and thick-target yield curves were obtained for alpha and helium-3 reactions of natural zinc. With the initial alpha energy of 25 MeV, the thick-target yield of 67Ga was found to be 165 muCi/muA.hr at the end of bombardment and the 66Ga contamination could be reduced to less than 1% after about 3 days of cooling. 68Ga could be obtained by milking from 68Ge. With the alpha energy range of 17-40 MeV, the thick-target yield of 68Ga was 1.2 muCi/muA.hr at the end of bombardment.