Measurement of the ⁴³Sc production cross-section with a deuteron beam

^43,44Sc/⁴⁷Sc is one of the most promising theranostic pairs in nuclear medicine. The co-emission of 1157 keV γ-rays with 99.9% branching ratio by ⁴⁴Sc and the presence of its metastable state ^44 mSc push to favour the adoption of ⁴³Sc for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) diagnostic procedures to lighten the dose to the patient and to the personnel. The β⁺ emitter ⁴³Sc can be produced at a medical cyclotron by proton bombardment of an enriched ⁴³Ca or ⁴⁶Ti oxide target. ⁴³Sc can be also produced by deuteron bombardment of an enriched ⁴²Ca oxide target. Only a few medical cyclotrons currently in operation offer deuteron beams. Some can be adapted to operate both a proton or a deuteron source. To compare these three production routes, an accurate knowledge of the cross-sections is essential. In this paper, we report on the cross-section measurement of the reaction ⁴²Ca(d,n)⁴³Sc performed at the 6 MV HVEC EN-Tandem of the Ion Beam Physics group at ETH in Zürich. A study of the production yield by using commercially available enriched target materials is also presented.