PRISMAP Deliverable D10.1 - Report on Gd target production

Short-lived radionuclides of the terbium (Tb) family show great interest for application in nuclear medicine. Different production routes exist to produce these radionuclides, but the most obvious ones use gadolinium as target material. Within the WP10 of PRISMAP, INFN and ARRONAX have worked on Gd target preparation for both cross section measurements (thin targets) and radionuclide production (thick targets). This work used the preparation of gadolinium targets for Tb-155 production as a case study as developed techniques can easily be adapted to other enriched Gd isotopes. Thin target preparation using different electrochemical techniques has been explored as well as different methods to prepare pellets from Gd₂O₃ powder including sintering. Targets of both types were prepared and irradiated both in France and Italy.