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- Birch, J, et al.
(author)
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Investigation of background in large-area neutron detectors due to alpha emission from impurities in aluminium
- 2015
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 1748-0221. ; 10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Thermal neutron detector based on films of (B4C)-B-10 have been developed as an alternative to He-3 detectors. In particular, The Multi-Grid detector concept is considered for future large area detectors for ESS and ILL instruments. An excellent signal-to-background ratio is essential to attain expected scientific results. Aluminium is the most natural material for the mechanical structure of of the Multi-Grid detector and other similar concepts due to its mechanical and neutronic properties. Due to natural concentration of alpha emitters, however, the background from alpha particles misidentified as neutrons can be unacceptably high. We present our experience operating a detector prototype affected by this issue. Monte Carlo simulations have been used to confirm the background as alpha particles. The issues have been addressed in the more recent implementations of the Multi-Grid detector by the use of purified aluminium as well as Ni-plating of standard aluminium. The result is the reduction in background by two orders of magnitude. A new large-area prototype has been built incorporating these modifications.
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2. |
- Birch, J., et al.
(author)
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Multi-Grid boron-10 detector for time-of-flight spectrometers in neutron scattering science
- 2015
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In: 2015 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2015. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 9781467398626
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Multi-Grid (MG) detector has been introduced at ILL and developed by a collaboration between ILL, ESS and Linkoping University. This detector design addresses the severely decreased availability of He3, in particular for neutron scattering instruments with large-area detectors, such as time-of-flight neutron spectrometers at ESS and other facilities. The MG detector is based on thin converter films of boron-10 carbide arranged in layers orthogonal to the incoming neutrons. The design of the detector provides position resolution, efficiency competitive with He3 and a strong gamma rejection capability. This paper presents the MG large-area (2.4m2) demonstrator and the progress made in order to meet the needs of production of B4C-coated layers, mechanical parts and assembly on a scale similar to that of the final detectors for ESS. A particular effort was made to produce aluminium detector parts with a low alpha background, successfully reducing the background rate to acceptable levels. Following the IN5 demonstrator, a compact prototype has been designed in order to finalise the electronic readout to be used at the ESS instruments equipped with the MG.
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3. |
- Sacchetti, F., et al.
(author)
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He-3-free neutron detectors and their applications
- 2015
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In: The European Physical Journal Plus. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2190-5444. ; 130:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The shortage of He-3 isotope to be used as optimum neutron absorber in various neutron detection applications is considered. Here we present some general requirements in different applications to introduce more specialized papers which describe recent progresses. Considering that the neutron detection is important in a very wide range of applications we cannot be exhaustive but we describe the most relevant applications which are expected to be important in the next decades.
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