Development of Thorium Dioxide Targets for Nuclear Experiments

Study of actinides are important for stockpile stewardship, nuclear astrophysics and nuclear structure. Nuclear experiments are conducted to harvest data on actinides using targets and accelerated beams. However, current methods for actinide target preparation fall short in providing high-quality, robust targets that are cost-efficient. At the University of Notre Dame, we have developed a novel method for the preparation of actinide targets using a spin coating assisted combustion method and prepared multiple highly uniform and stable uranium dioxide targets which were reported last year.

We have now extended this method for preparing thorium dioxide (ThO₂) targets. This is significant for nuclear energy research since there is a renewed interest in ThO₂ as an alternative to the traditional uranium based nuclear fuel and ThO₂ thin targets are more convenient than fuel pellets for studying its characteristics. Precise control of the thicknesses and high uniformity of the ThO₂ targets prepared using this method are verified with multiple surface characterization methods: scanning electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and alpha-spectroscopy. This talk summarizes the development of the ThO₂ target preparation method using spin coating assisted combustion method.