Activation cross sections of alpha-particle-induced reactions on niobium-93 up to 50 MeV

• Technetium radioisotopes exhibit promising potential for applications in nuclear medicine. • Production cross sections of 96g,95m,95g,94g,93m,93g Tc, 93m Mo, 95m,95g,92m,91m,90 Nb, 89g Zr and 88,87g Y in the alpha-particle-induced nuclear reactions of 93 Nb were experimentally measured. • The stacked-foil technique combined with off-line gamma-ray spectrometry was employed for the measurements. • Physical thick target yields of the produced radioisotopes were estimated based on the measured cross sections. Technetium radioisotopes have garnered interest in medical applications. In this study, niobium-93 foils were irradiated with a 50-MeV alpha-particle beam to determine the production cross sections of technetium radioisotopes including 96g,95m,95g,94g,93m,93g Tc, along with 93m Mo, 95m,95g,92m,91m,90 Nb, 89g Zr and 88,87g Y. The stacked-foil activation technique and gamma-ray spectrometry were adopted for this experiment. The results were compared with the theoretical values of TALYS based TENDL-2023 library, and the previously published experimental data. Physical thick target yields (TTY) were deduced based on the measured cross sections.