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The free-surface Liquid-Lithium Target, recently developed at Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF), was successfully used with a 1.9 MeV, 1.2 mA (2.3 kW) continuous-wave proton beam. Neutrons (~2 × 10(10) n/s having a peak energy of ~27 keV) from the (7)Li(p,n)(7)Be reaction were detected with a fission-chamber detector and by gold activation targets positioned in the forward direction. The setup is being used for nuclear astrophysics experiments to study neutron-induced reactions at stellar energies and to demonstrate the feasibility of accelerator-based boron neutron capture therapy.

A high-intensity neutron source based on a Liquid-Lithium Target (LiLiT) and the 7 Li(p,n) reaction was developed at SARAF (Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility, Israel). The setup is used for nuclear-astrophysics experiments owing to the quasi-Maxwellian shape of the neutron energy distribution at stellar thermal energies (kT ~ 30 keV). The LiLiT device consists of a forced-flown (> 2 m/s) film of liquid lithium (~200 o C) whose free surface is bombarded by a proton beam. The lithium film acts both as the neutron-producing target and as a power beam dump. The setup was commissioned with a 1.2 mA proton beam at 1.91 MeV, producing a neutron yield (peaked at ~28 keV) of ~ 3 ×10 10 n/s, more than one order of magnitude larger than conventional 7 Li(p,n)-based neutron sources. The target dissipates a peak power areal density of 2.5 kW/cm 2 and a peak power volume density of 500 kW/cm 3 with no significant temperature or vacuum pressure elevation in the target chamber. We present preliminary results of first activation measurements on Zr and Ce stable isotopes performed with the SARAF-LiLiT setup, using Au as neutron monitor and of the determination of their Maxwellian-averaged neutron capture cross section.

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