Proton-recoil detectors for time-of-flight measurements of neutrons with kinetic energies from some tens of keV to a few MeV

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 575; no. 3; pp. 449 - 455
• Main Authors: Beyer, R., Grosse, E., Heidel, K., Hutsch, J., Junghans, A.R., Klug, J., Légrády, D., Nolte, R., Röttger, S., Sobiella, M., Wagner, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-06-2007
• Subjects: Fast neutrons; nELBE; Neutron detector; Neutron time of flight; Proton-recoil detector; Neutron detector; 29.40.Mc; 28.20.Cz; Fast neutrons; nELBE; 29.30.Hs; Proton-recoil detector; Neutron time of flight
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2007.02.096

For experiments at the superconducting electron accelerator ELBE, where neutrons in the kinetic energy region from some tens of keV to a few MeV will be produced by bremsstrahlung, neutron-time-of-flight detectors have been developed. These detectors are made from the plastic scintillator material EJ-200. Efficiency calibration showed more than 10% efficiency for kinetic energies down to 30
keV. The calibration was done at the “accelerator facility for fast neutron research” at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig, using pulsed quasi-monoenergetic neutron fields with a well-determined fluence. The low detection threshold was obtained by coincident readout of two Hamamatsu R2059-01 photomultiplier tubes per scintillator and by triggering just below the single-photo-electron peak of these photomultiplier tubes, which additionally gives a well-reproduceable detection threshold.