New organic crystals for pulse shape discrimination

Giulia Hull; Natalia P. Zaitseva; Nerine J. Cherepy; Jason R. Newby; Wolfgang Stoeffl; Stephen A. Payne

doi:10.1109/TNS.2009.2015944

New organic crystals for pulse shape discrimination

Giulia Hull, Natalia P. Zaitseva, Nerine J. Cherepy, Jason R. Newby, Wolfgang Stoeffl, Stephen A. Payne

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

Efficient, readily-available, low-cost, high-energy neutron detectors can play a central role in detecting illicit nuclear weapons since neutrons are a strong indication for the presence of fissile material such as Plutonium and Highly-Enriched Uranium. The main challenge in detecting fast neutrons consists in the discrimination of the signal from the gamma radiation background. At present, the only well-investigated organic crystal scintillator for fast neutron detection, in a n/γ mixed field, is stilbene, which while offering good pulse shape discrimination, is not widely used because of its limited availability and high cost. In this work we report the results of our studies made with a number of new organic crystals, which exhibit pulse shape discrimination for detection of fast neutrons. In particular 1,1,4,4- tetraphenyl-1,3-butadiene features a light yield higher than anthracene and a Figure of Merit (FOM) for the pulse shape discrimination better than stilbene. New crystals are good candidates for the low-cost solution growth method, thus representing promising organic scintillators for widespread deployment for high-energy neutron detection.

Original language	English
Article number	5075983
Pages (from-to)	899-903
Number of pages	5
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Volume	56
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2009.2015944
State	Published - Jun 2009
Externally published	Yes

Funding

Manuscript received June 30, 2008; revised January 29, 2009. Current version published June 10, 2009. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nonproliferation Research and Development (NA-22).

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Energy office of Nonproliferation Research and Development	NA-22
U.S. Department of Energy
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory	DE-AC52-07NA27344

Keywords

Neutron detectors
Scintillation detectors

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10.1109/TNS.2009.2015944

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title = "New organic crystals for pulse shape discrimination",

abstract = "Efficient, readily-available, low-cost, high-energy neutron detectors can play a central role in detecting illicit nuclear weapons since neutrons are a strong indication for the presence of fissile material such as Plutonium and Highly-Enriched Uranium. The main challenge in detecting fast neutrons consists in the discrimination of the signal from the gamma radiation background. At present, the only well-investigated organic crystal scintillator for fast neutron detection, in a n/γ mixed field, is stilbene, which while offering good pulse shape discrimination, is not widely used because of its limited availability and high cost. In this work we report the results of our studies made with a number of new organic crystals, which exhibit pulse shape discrimination for detection of fast neutrons. In particular 1,1,4,4- tetraphenyl-1,3-butadiene features a light yield higher than anthracene and a Figure of Merit (FOM) for the pulse shape discrimination better than stilbene. New crystals are good candidates for the low-cost solution growth method, thus representing promising organic scintillators for widespread deployment for high-energy neutron detection.",

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AU - Hull, Giulia

AU - Zaitseva, Natalia P.

AU - Cherepy, Nerine J.

AU - Newby, Jason R.

AU - Stoeffl, Wolfgang

AU - Payne, Stephen A.

PY - 2009/6

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N2 - Efficient, readily-available, low-cost, high-energy neutron detectors can play a central role in detecting illicit nuclear weapons since neutrons are a strong indication for the presence of fissile material such as Plutonium and Highly-Enriched Uranium. The main challenge in detecting fast neutrons consists in the discrimination of the signal from the gamma radiation background. At present, the only well-investigated organic crystal scintillator for fast neutron detection, in a n/γ mixed field, is stilbene, which while offering good pulse shape discrimination, is not widely used because of its limited availability and high cost. In this work we report the results of our studies made with a number of new organic crystals, which exhibit pulse shape discrimination for detection of fast neutrons. In particular 1,1,4,4- tetraphenyl-1,3-butadiene features a light yield higher than anthracene and a Figure of Merit (FOM) for the pulse shape discrimination better than stilbene. New crystals are good candidates for the low-cost solution growth method, thus representing promising organic scintillators for widespread deployment for high-energy neutron detection.

AB - Efficient, readily-available, low-cost, high-energy neutron detectors can play a central role in detecting illicit nuclear weapons since neutrons are a strong indication for the presence of fissile material such as Plutonium and Highly-Enriched Uranium. The main challenge in detecting fast neutrons consists in the discrimination of the signal from the gamma radiation background. At present, the only well-investigated organic crystal scintillator for fast neutron detection, in a n/γ mixed field, is stilbene, which while offering good pulse shape discrimination, is not widely used because of its limited availability and high cost. In this work we report the results of our studies made with a number of new organic crystals, which exhibit pulse shape discrimination for detection of fast neutrons. In particular 1,1,4,4- tetraphenyl-1,3-butadiene features a light yield higher than anthracene and a Figure of Merit (FOM) for the pulse shape discrimination better than stilbene. New crystals are good candidates for the low-cost solution growth method, thus representing promising organic scintillators for widespread deployment for high-energy neutron detection.

KW - Neutron detectors

KW - Scintillation detectors

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New organic crystals for pulse shape discrimination

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