A high-efficiency thermal neutron detector based on thin 3D 10B4C converters for high-rate applications

Gabriele Croci; Andrea Muraro; Enrico Perelli Cippo; Marco Tardocchi; Giovanni Grosso; Giorgia Albani; Giuliano Angella; Ilario Defendi; Richard Hall-Wilton; Carina Höglund; Davide Raspino; Nigel Rhodes; Linda Robinson; Susan Schmidt; Erik Schooneveld; Karl Zeitelhack; Giuseppe Gorini

doi:10.1209/0295-5075/123/52001

All issues

Volume 123 / No 5 (September 2018)

EPL, 123 5 (2018) 52001

Abstract

Issue		EPL Volume 123, Number 5, September 2018


Article Number		52001
Number of page(s)		6
Section		Nuclear Physics
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/123/52001
Published online		02 October 2018

EPL, 123 (2018) 52001

A high-efficiency thermal neutron detector based on thin 3D ¹⁰B₄C converters for high-rate applications

Gabriele Croci¹^,2^,9^(a), Andrea Muraro², Enrico Perelli Cippo², Marco Tardocchi², Giovanni Grosso¹, Giorgia Albani¹, Giuliano Angella³, Ilario Defendi⁴, Richard Hall-Wilton⁵^,6, Carina Höglund⁵^,7, Davide Raspino⁸, Nigel Rhodes⁸, Linda Robinson⁵, Susan Schmidt⁵, Erik Schooneveld⁸, Karl Zeitelhack⁴ and Giuseppe Gorini²^,5

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli studi di Milano Bicocca - Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, Italy
² Istituto di Fisica del Plasma (IFP-CNR) - Via Cozzi 53, I-20125 Milano, Italy
³ IENI-CNR, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Milano, Italy
⁴ Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München - Lichtenbergstr. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
⁵ European Spallation Source ERIC (ESS) - Tunavägen 24, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
⁶ Mid-Sweden University - Sundsvall, Sweden
⁷ Dept. of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University - SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden
⁸ STFC-ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory - Didcot, UK
⁹ INFN - Sezione Di Milano-Bicocca - Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, Italy

^(a) gabriele.croci@unimib.it

Received: 25 June 2018
Accepted: 4 September 2018

Abstract

A new position-sensitive thermal neutron detector based on boron-coated converters has been developed as an alternative to today's standard ³He-based technology for application to thermal neutron scattering. The key element of the development is a novel 3D ¹⁰B₄C converter which has been ad hoc designed and realized with the aim of combining a high neutron conversion probability via the ¹⁰B(n, α)⁷Li reaction together with an efficient collection of the produced charged particles. The developed 3D converter is composed of thin aluminium grids made by a micro-waterjet technique and coated on both sides with a thin layer of ¹⁰B₄C. When coupled to a GEM detector this converter allows reaching neutron detection efficiencies close to 50% at neutron wavelengths equal to 4 Å. In addition, the new detector features a spatial resolution of about 5 mm and can sustain counting rates well in excess of . The newly developed neutron detector will enable time-resolved measurements of different kind of samples in neutron scattering experiments at high flux spallation sources and can find a use in applications where large areas and custom geometries of thermal neutron detectors are foreseen.

PACS: 29.40.-n – Radiation detectors / 28.20.Cz – Neutron scattering / 29.40.Cs – Gas-filled counters: ionization chambers, proportional, and avalanche counters

© EPLA, 2018

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