Scattering of Neutrons in Deuterium

Abstract

USING the neutrons released in the beryllium-deuterium nuclear reaction, we have investigated the scattering of medium fast neutrons in deuterium gas. The bombarding deuteron beam of 4 micro-amperes was accelerated with a peak voltage of 600 kilovolts in a short ion path tube¹, using the 1 Mv. cascade transformer at the California Institute of Technology. The neutrons emitted in a direction perpendicular to the bombarding deuteron beam traversed a brass pressure ionization chamber filled with deuterium gas at 7 atmospheres. The energy of the recoil deuteron was measured by a linear amplifier which fed a mechanical oscillograph, the pulses being recorded on a moving film. Calibration pulses were registered on the same film with a thyratron pulse generator and a standard condenser. More than 4,000 tracks were measured, the longest pulse track corresponding to an energy of 2 Mev. The curve giving the distribution in energy is shown in Fig. 1.