Production of ⁴³Sc and ^44gSc from natural CaF₂ material using an FN Tandem accelerator

The radioisotopes of ⁴³Sc and ⁴⁴Sc are promising in the field of theranostics for their role as β⁺ emitters in theranostic pairs with ⁴⁷Sc. Production of these isotopes through various nuclear reactions using either cyclotrons or linear accelerators is of particular interest and previous studies have provided results using accelerated beams of protons, deuterons, and alpha particles. A novel production technique, using an ion source cathode packed with natural calcium fluoride material and irradiated with a ³He beam, was tested at the Nuclear Science Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame in order to initially study the production of ⁴¹Ca. Gamma-ray spectrometry revealed presence of ⁴³Sc and ⁴⁴Sc in the target, and allowed for the first measurement of their yield due to reactions of ³He on natural calcium. The calculated thick target yields of ⁴³Sc and ^44gSc from the reactions ^natCa(³He,x)⁴³Sc and ^natCa(³He,x)^44gSc are compared to theoretical results using TALYS cross section models. Overall, results agree well with models at lower beam energies but tend to diverge at higher energies.