Fabrication and characterization of carbon-backed thin (208)Pb targets.

Thin carbon-backed isotopically enriched (208)Pb targets were required for our experiment aimed to study the reaction dynamics for (48)Ti + (208)Pb system, populating the near super-heavy nucleus (256)Rf, through mass-energy correlation of the fission fragments. Purity and thickness of the targets are of utmost importance in such studies as these factors have strong influence on the measurement accuracy of mass and energy distribution of fission fragments. (208)Pb targets with thickness ranging from 60 μg/cm(2) to 250 μg/cm(2) have been fabricated in high vacuum environment using physical vapor deposition method. Important points in the method are as follows: •(208)Pb was deposited using resistive heating method, whereas carbon (backing foil) deposition was performed by using the electron beam bombardment technique.•Different characterization techniques such as Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) were used to assert the purity and thickness of the targets.•These targets have successfully been used to accomplish our experimental objectives.