Nuclear model analysis of excitation functions of proton, deuteron and α-particle induced reactions on nickel isotopes for production of the medically interesting copper-61.

Excitation functions of the (61)Ni(p,n)(61)Cu, (62)Ni(p,2n)(61)Cu, (60)Ni(d,n)(61)Cu and (58)Ni(α,p)(61)Cu reactions were analyzed with respect to the production of (61)Cu (T½=3.33 h), a promising radionuclide for PET imaging. The nuclear model codes EMPIRE and TALYS reproduced the experimental data of all reactions well, except those for the (d,n) process. The fitted excitation functions were employed to calculate the integral yield of (61)Cu in all reactions. The amounts of the possible impurities (62)Cu and (60)Cu were assessed. A validation of the evaluated (p,xn) data was attempted.