Excitation function
![]() | This article does not cite any sources. (February 2008) |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/U235_Fission_cross_section.png/220px-U235_Fission_cross_section.png)
Uranium-235 tends to capture neutrons because of multiple resonances
Excitation function is a term used in nuclear physics to describe a graphical plot of the yield of a radionuclide or reaction channel as a function of the bombarding projectile energy or the calculated excitation energy of the compound nucleus.
The excitation function typically resembles a Gaussian bell curve. Mathematically, it is described as a Breit-Wigner function, owing to the resonant nature of the production of the compound nucleus.
A nuclear reaction should be described by a complete study of the exit channel (1n,2n,3n etc.) excitation functions in order to allow a determination of the optimum energy to be used to maximize the yield.
Categories:
- Nuclear physics
- Physics stubs