Nuclear Data Section
International Atomic Energy Agency
P.O.Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Memo CP-D/721
Date:
To:
From:

5 December 2011
Distribution
N. Otsuka, O. Schwerer, S.P. Simakov, S. Hlavač,

Subject:
Reference:

LEXFOR entry “Nuclear resonance fluorescence”
Memo CP-D/703

Compilation of photo-nuclear scattering reaction data measured by nuclear resonance fluorescence
technique was proposed in Memo CP-D/703. However coding of the process (SF3) in theREACTION code was ambiguous. The purpose of this memo is to clarify this issue in a newLEXFOR entry “Nuclear resonance fluorescence”.

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Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence
Nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) is emission of photons following the photon absorption by
the target nuclide which leads to the excitation of a strong resonance level. The excited nucleus
decays back to the ground state either by emission of a single photon or cascade of several photons.
This is equivalent to elastic or inelastic scattering of photon if the emission corresponds to transition
from the initially excited resonance level to the ground state or to another level, respectively.
Incident photons are usually produced by bremsstrahlung source which has continuous spectrum up
to the end-point energy E 0 , therefore several levels may be excited simultaneously. . The incident
photons may also be produced by quasi-monoenergetic gamma-ray sources, with the spectrum
typically defined as a Gaussian with a centroid energy of E (~ a few MeV), and width W (~ 100keV). Several resonances may still be excited by such sources, but with greater selectivity.

Figure: Schematic depiction of NRF. On
the left side the Bremsstrahlung spectrumwith a part leading to the excitation of thenarrow resonance is shown. On the rightside the excitation and de-excitation of a
specific resonance E x is shown (1: elastictransition,2:inelastic transition).
Transitions to the E x level from higher
resonances are omitted.

The energy E x of level excited in NRF is of the order MeV while the width of the resonances is of
the order meV. Scattered photons are detected by High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors withresolution of several keV. The recoiled nucleus has energy just a few eV and is often neglected inderivation of the excitation energy.
Because of poor detector energy resolution, the experimental cross section is actually an integral
over the resonance width (i.e., resonance area). Assuming that (1) the incident photon spectrum isconstant over the narrow resonance width (E x -δ, E x +δ) and (2) the observed transition is from theinitially excited resonance level E x , namely, no contribution of feeding of levels higher than E x , thenumber of emitted photons N with the energy E γ’ (= E x - E i ) is related with the resonance area:
2N(E γ' , E 0 ) E x +δ
 πc Γ Γ2J + 1
 g x x →0 x →i with g x =(1)= ∫ σ(E γ , E γ' )dE γ = 2
2(2J+1)nT nγ,xE
Γ
Txx,totE x −δ
where n T and n γ,x are the sample thickness and the number of incident photons in (E x -δ, E x +δ),
respectively. The detected gamma energy E γ’ corresponds to the transition from the resonance E x tothe level E i . The statistical factor g x depends on the spin of target nuclide (J T ) and resonance (J x ).
The resonance area is not sensitive to the end-point energy E 0 if chosen appropriately. Though there
are two possible helicity states for incoming photons (+1 and -1), the factor 2 is usually excluded
from the denominator of the statistical factor as a convention in NRF study:
2N(E γ' , E 0 ) E x +δ πc  " Γ x →0 Γ x →i2J + 1
 g xwith g x' =(2)= ∫ σ(E γ , E γ' )dE γ = 
2J T + 1nT nγ,x
Γ x,tot Ex E x −δResonance area (integrated cross section)
REACTION coding: SCT, EL or INL in SF3, ARE in SF6
Independent variables:• when EL in SF3: resonance energy• when SCT or INL in SF3 (with PAR in SF5): resonance energy and secondary energy
Units:

code from Dictionary 25 with the dimension B*EV (e.g., B*EV)

When the authors specify (or assume) the observed transition as population of the ground state or an
excited state, EL or INL is coded. Otherwise the data set is treated as partial scattering (SCT in SF3,PAR in SF5) with the transition energy under the heading EN-RES and E (repeated twice).
Example:1. Resonance area for the ground state transition
REACTION...
EN-RES
KEV
1697.81728.8...

(93-NP-237(G,EL),,ARE)
EN-RES-ERR DATA
KEV
B*EV
0.5
5.3
0.2
0.6

DATA-ERR
B*EV
1.4
2.3

2. Resonance area for photon with a specific energy when relation with the level energy
before the gamma transition is uncertain
REACTION(93-NP-237(G,SCT),PAR,ARE,,BRA)...
EN-RES-MAX
MEV
2.8...
EE-ERRDATA
DATA-ERR
KEVKEVB*EVB*EV
1697.80.5
5.3
1.4
1728.8
0.2
0.6
2.3
...

In this case, the resonance energy range may be chosen by the compiler so that the alloutgoing photon energies are covered by this range. The end-point energy may be coded
under the heading EN-RES-MAX when bremsstrahlung photon source was used. Both thelower and upper boundary may be coded under the headings EN-RES-MIN and EN-RES-MAX
when laser Compton scattering photon source was used. The modifier BRA is coded in SF8when such a photon source is used. Resonance parameters derived from the resonance area
(e.g., resonance energy, resonance width) are however coded without this modifier.
When correction is done to subtract the feeding effect, it must be mentioned under the keyword
CORRECTION.

Reference
F. Metzger, Prog. Nucl. Phys. 7(1977)53