Investigation of production routes for various radioisotopes and their excitation function studies significant to PET technology

Excitation functions for the production route of light non-metallic radioisotopes 11C, 13N, 15O and 18F and metallic radioisotope 64Cu are evaluated using the statistical model code EMPIRE-3.2. The radioisotopes studied are commonly used in positron emission tomography and single-photon emission computed tomography technologies. The effect of pre-equilibrium emission, nuclear level densities and the optical model potential on the reaction cross-sections has been studied and validated through reported experimental values and an evaluated data library (TENDL). The results of the performed calculations with best-fit values as obtained from different pre-equilibrium emission models, level density models and the optical model potential parameters provide reliable values of the cross-section in a broad spectrum of energies, also including the region where no experimental data are available, thus exposing a possible production route in the required energy range.