Heavy-Ion Induced Production of Medically Important Radioisotopes in the ¹⁴N + ¹⁸¹Ta System

Abstract

The production of radioisotopes plays a crucial role in nuclear medicine, both for diagnostics and therapy. While reactors and cyclotrons dominate conventional isotope production, heavy-ion induced reactions provide alternate access routes to radionuclides with potential clinical relevance. In this work, excitation functions for residues populated in the ¹⁴N + ¹⁸¹Ta system were measured in the energy range of 65–88 MeV using the stacked-foil activation technique and high-resolution γ-ray spectroscopy. Medically important isotopes of Au, Hg, Pt, Ir, Os, and Re were identified, and their production cross sections were compared with statistical model calculations (PACE4). The study emphasizes the applicability of these isotopes in diagnostic imaging, therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, brachytherapy, and radionuclide generator systems. The results demonstrate the potential of heavy-ion accelerators to supplement conventional methods for medical isotope production.