Neutron spectroscopy without time-of-flight measurement: A DSP-based deuterated scintillator array

M. Febbraro, F. D. Becchetti, R. O. Torres-Isea, M. Ojaruega, A. M. Howard, J. J. Kolata, A. Roberts, A. N. Villano

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Development and evaluation of a large-volume multi-element digital-signal-processing (DSP)-based deuterated (C6D6) liquid scintillator array for the study of reactions involving neutrons without the need for measurement of neutron time-of-flight (ToF) is described. In-beam testing was conducted at the University of Notre Dame (UND) 10 MV FN tandem Van de Graaff accelerator using a deuteron beam at Ed=16.0MeV. The energy response and detector efficiency of 100 mm dia. × 150 mm long cylindrical deuterated liquid scintillator (Eljen 315) detectors was determined in the range En=4.8 to 8.7 MeV and E n=6.8 to 21.2 MeV, respectively. In addition, we determined that optimized digital pulse-shape discrimination (DPSD) in liquid scintillator detectors using enhanced liquid (Eljen 315MOD) and other methods can yield improved recoil-particle tagging. As we demonstrate, this is particularly important in deuterated scintillators at neutron energies above 15 MeV. This is especially advantageous for study of nuclear reactions involving radioactive beams, since these often have large, positive reaction Q values.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6488894
Pages (from-to)890-896
Number of pages7
JournalIEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Volume60
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Deuterated scintillators
  • digital pulse-shape discrimination
  • liquid organic scintillators
  • neutron detection
  • neutron spectroscopy

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