Decay Data of the Radionuclide ⁵⁶Co for High-Energy Gamma Efficiency Calibration of Detectors

⁵⁶Co with γ-ray energies covering the range of 0.84~3.55MeV are important radionuclides for Ge detector calibration. The evaluated and recommended γ-ray emission probabilities were done based on the main measurements of D.C.Camp et al. and M.E.Phelps et al. before 2000. The values reported by D.C.Camp, however, were systematically lower in high energies range. In this work, using experimental measurements obtained from the Nuclear Science Reference Library, the main decay data, such as half-life and γ-ray emission probabilities, are evaluated and summarized. In the Eγ<2.5 MeV energy region, the new evaluation data in this work are in high agreement with the results of the ENSDF evaluation (Huo, J.D., 2011) and the summary report published by IAEA in 1991 (IAEA-TECDOC-619); however, in the high-energy region, i.e., in the Eγ>2.5 MeV energy region, the present work gives lower values than the other evaluation data. The deviation at 3.4 MeV is up to 2.7%. Rationality of the present evaluation and corrected method will be dependent upon new measurements, and more precise standard data are desirable. The datasets presented in this paper, including the ENDF and ENSDF format decay data files for ⁵⁶Co, are openly available at https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.j00213.00169 (Please use the private access link https://www.scidb.cn/anonymous/bjJ1QXJl to access the dataset during the peer review process)