Compensated gadolinium-loaded plastic scintillators for thermal neutron detection and counting
Résumé
Plastic, scintillator loading with gadolinium-rich organometallic complexes shows a high potential for the deployment of efficient and cost-effective neutron detectors. Due to the low-energy photon and electron signature of thermal neutron capture by gadolinium-155 and gadolinium-157, alternative treatment to Pulse Shape Discrimination has to be proposed in order to display a trustable count rate. This paper discloses the principle of a compensation method applied to a two-scintillator system: a detection scintillator interacts with photon radiation and is loaded with gadolinium organometallic compound to become a thermal neutron absorber, while a non-gadolinium loaded compensation scintillator solely interacts with the photon part of the incident radiation. Posterior to the nonlinear smoothing of the counting signals, a hypothesis test determines whether the resulting count rate after photon response compensation falls into statistical fluctuations or provides a robust image of neutron activity. A laboratory prototype is tested under both photon and neutron irradiations, allowing us to investigate the performance of the overall compensation system in terms of neutron detection, especially with regards to a commercial helium-3 counter. The study reveals satisfactory results in terms of sensitivity and orientates future investigation toward promising axes.
Mots clés
gadolinium-rich organometallic complex
helium-3 counter
photodetector
pulse shaping circuits
solid scintillation detectors
statistical analysis
thermal neutron detection
thermal neutron counting
photon signature
electron signature
thermal neutron capture
gadolinium-155
gadolinium-157
pulse shape discrimination
compensation method
scintillator detection
photon radiation
gadolinium organometallic compound
gadolinium loaded compensation scintillator
counting signal
statistical fluctuation
neutron activity
photon irradiation
neutron irradiation
gadolinium-loaded plastic scintillator
plastic scintillator
detector
nuclear instrumentation
instrumentation
Neutron-gamma discrimination
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