Experimental setup and procedure for the measurement of the 7Be(n,p)7Li reaction at n_TOF

Following the completion of the second neutron beam line and the related experimental area (EAR2) at the n_TOF spallation neutron source at CERN, several experiments were planned and performed. The high instantaneous neutron flux available in EAR2 allows to investigate neutron indiced reactions with charged particles in the exit channel even employing targets made out of small amounts of short-lived radioactive isotopes. After the successful measurement of the 7Be(n,{\alpha}){\alpha} cross section, the 7Be(n,p)7Li reaction was studied in order to provide still missing cross section data of relevance for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), in an attempt to find a solution to the cosmological Lithium abundance problem. This paper describes the experimental setup employed in such a measurement and its characterization.The authors are grateful to Carmelo Marchetta (INFN-LNS) for the production of the 6LiF test target. This research was partially funded by the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007- 2011 under the Project CHANDA (Grant No. 605203). We acknowledge the support of the Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN) under the grant UMO-2012/04/M/ST2/00700-UMO-2016/22/M/ST2/00183, and of the Croatian Science Foundation under project HRZZ 1680