A boron-coated ionization chamber for ultra-cold neutron detection

D. J. Salvat, C. L. Morris, Z. Wang, E. R. Adamek, J. Bacon, K. P. Hickerson, J. Hoagland, A. T. Holley, C. Y. Liu, M. Makela, J. Ramsey, A. Reid, R. Rios, A. Saunders, S. K.L. Sjue, B. Vorndick, A. R. Young

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

The design and performance of a boron-coated ionization chamber for the detection of ultra-cold neutrons (UCN) are presented. We detect UCN from the solid deuterium-based UCN source at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Our results indicate comparable efficiency to 3He ionization chambers and proportional counters currently used at the UCN source. In addition, the ion chamber is used to detect thermal neutrons; a comparison of the thermal neutron and UCN pulse-height spectra indicates that UCN mostly capture near the layer surface.

Funding

The UCN facility at LANSCE is supported by DOE and LANL LDRD programs . In addition, D.J.S. is supported in part by the DOE Office of Science Graduate Fellowship Program (DOE SCGF), made possible in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 , administered by ORISE-ORAU under contract No. DE-AC05-06OR23100 .

Keywords

  • B
  • H replacement
  • Ionization chamber
  • Ultracold neutrons

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