Study of a high spatial resolution ¹⁰B-based thermal neutron detector for application in neutron reflectometry: The Multi-Blade prototype

Although for large area detectors it is crucial to find an alternative to detect thermal neutrons because of the ³He shortage, this is not the case for small area detectors. Neutron scattering science is still growing its instruments' power and the neutron flux a detector must tolerate is increasing. For small area detectors the main effort is to expand the detectors' performances. At Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) we developed the Multi-Blade detector which wants to increase the spatial resolution of ³He-based detectors for high flux applications. We developed a high spatial resolution prototype suitable for neutron reflectometry instruments. It exploits solid ¹⁰B-films employed in a proportional gas chamber. Two prototypes have been constructed at ILL and the results obtained on our monochromatic test beam line are presented here.