Characterization of boron-coated silicon sensors for thermal neutron detection

Mehendale, Shruti; Kanaki, K.; Povoli, Marco; Samnøy, Andreas Tefre; Tambave, Ganesh Jagannath; Kok, Angela; Höglund, Carina; Schmidt, Susann; Kazi, Saima Sultana; Llamas‐Jansa, Isabel; Kittelmann, T.; Lai, Chung-Chuan; Hansen, Thor-Erik; Pospı́šil, S.; Slavíček, T.; Röhrich, D.; Hall-Wilton, R.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2020.164124

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The ESS coating facility specialized in the coating of the 10 B 4 C converter layers on substrates made of Aluminium, but important expertise was gained in the past years with low-temperature Boron depositions [71] and on various substrate materials such as FR4, G10, Kapton, stainless steel, silicon or superconducting materials [13,54].…”

Section: The Ess Coating Facility For Thin 10 B 4 C Layersmentioning

confidence: 99%

10Boron-film-based gas detectors at ESS

Stefanescu,

Guérard,

Hall-Wilton

et al. 2024

JNR

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The development of detectors for the European Spallation Source is an important parallel element to the effort put into the design and construction of the neutron source and instruments. The 10Boron-film-based detector developments that started over a decade ago as basic detector concepts have now reached technical maturity after intense prototyping work and numerous testing campaigns. Several of the ESS beamlines that will soon enter the commissioning phase started welcoming the detector systems built with the 10B-film converter technology. The real-size demonstrators evolved in the last 2–3 years into a diverse suite of gas proportional counters for use in diffraction, reflectometry and small-angle scattering studies in spite of the operational complexity posed by the requirements for large-area coverage, low material budget and robustness for operation in the high-flux and high-radiation environment of ESS. The detectors are now being shipped to ESS or undergoing the last performance and calibration tests before being handed over to the instrument teams for installation in the host beamlines. A common feature of these detector systems is the very large number of readout channels that they are instrumented with in order to fulfill the demanding requirements for sensitivity, spatial resolution and count-rate capability. Across all of the detector types that will operate at ESS, the integration, testing and commissioning of the read-out technologies and software tools for data reduction, calibration and analysis are the focus of the detector and integration teams. These will yield a wealth of knowledge about their operation as well as initial results on the in-situ performance, a very important asset to ensure rapid commissioning of the detectors when neutrons from the ESS source become available. In this paper we will give an overview of the 10B-film-based detector technologies included in the ESS detector suite that are currently facing the transition from the production phase to installation and integration with the other beamline components, which comes with its own specific challenges of both organizational and technical nature.

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Section: The Ess Coating Facility For Thin 10 B 4 C Layersmentioning

confidence: 99%

10Boron-film-based gas detectors at ESS

Stefanescu,

Guérard,

Hall-Wilton

et al. 2024

JNR

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“…Respect to B 4 C films, B films are responsible for greater efficiency [20]. Due to the smaller number of useful 10 B nuclei per unit area, the carbon presence, whose stopping power is higher than boron's, reduces the angular range of the exiting particles.…”

Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding the conversion element, it can be a component of the detector itself [10][11][12] or it can be introduced as a separate layer to be coupled with a detector [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most papers deal with B 4 C, either natural B 4 C ( nat B 4 C) or enriched B 4 C ( en B 4 C), since it is less expensive than pure 10 B and can be more easily deposited with standard deposition techniques, like thermal evaporation or sputtering. However, depositing B 4 C has some practical problems such as preserving the stoichiometry [20,27] and poor adhesion to the common substrates could result from hardness-related high intrinsic stress build up during thickening of the growing film (B 4 C is the fourth hardest material). This aspect limits the maximum thickness of the film unless soft substrates or heated substrate are used as strategies to reduce/relax the stress [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thermal neutron conversion by high purity 10B-enriched layers: PLD-growth, thickness-dependence and neutron-detection performances

et al. 2022

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Neutron applications and detection are of paramount importance in industry, medicine, scientific research, homeland security, production of extreme UV optics and so on. Neutron detection requires a converter element that, as a result of its interaction with neutrons, produces reaction products (mainly charged particles) whose detection can be correlated with the neutron flux. Reduced availability and increased cost of the most used converter element, 3He, have triggered research efforts for alternative materials, proper deposition methods and new detector architectures. 10B converter is a valid alternative to 3He thanks to its high thermal neutron cross section and relatively high Q value. In this paper we report on the room temperature Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) of high quality and uniform 10B films with the expected density, different thickness values (0.5, 1.0, 1.2, 1.5 and 2.0 μm) and uniform thickness over a circular area of about 30 mm in diameter. Additionally, they are adherent to the substrate with a negligible presence of contaminants. The conversion properties of such 10B coatings coupled to a Si solid state detector are studied upon exposure to a neutron flux from an Am-Be neutron source (2.2·106 n/s). The experimental results, compared with spectra simulated by using a GEANT4 code, present a good agreement and efficiencies of the order of a few percent.

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“…Semiconductor-based neutron detectors with lining or coating with neutron converter are also used. In this case, the charged particle emitted from the neutron absorber enters to the semiconductor device where further electron–hole pairs are generated and collected at the electrodes 37 , 38 . Doping these detectors with elements that could increase the neutron capture efficiency, for example 10 B enriched hBN neutron detectors 39 , should be the way for increasing the detection efficiency of semiconductor-based devices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybrid halide perovskite neutron detectors

Andričević

Náfrádi

Kollár

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Interest in fast and easy detection of high-energy radiation (x-, γ-rays and neutrons) is closely related to numerous practical applications ranging from biomedicine and industry to homeland security issues. In this regard, crystals of hybrid halide perovskite have proven to be excellent detectors of x- and γ-rays, offering exceptionally high sensitivities in parallel to the ease of design and handling. Here, we demonstrate that by assembling a methylammonium lead tri-bromide perovskite single crystal (CH3NH3PbBr3 SC) with a Gadolinium (Gd) foil, one can very efficiently detect a flux of thermal neutrons. The neutrons absorbed by the Gd foil turn into γ-rays, which photo-generate charge carriers in the CH3NH3PbBr3 SC. The induced photo-carriers contribute to the electric current, which can easily be measured, providing information on the radiation intensity of thermal neutrons. The dependence on the beam size, bias voltage and the converting distance is investigated. To ensure stable and efficient charge extraction, the perovskite SCs were equipped with carbon electrodes. Furthermore, other types of conversion layers were also tested, including borated polyethylene sheets as well as Gd grains and Gd2O3 pellets directly engulfed into the SCs. Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) radiation transport code calculations quantitatively confirmed the detection mechanism herein proposed.

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Characterization of boron-coated silicon sensors for thermal neutron detection

Cited by 7 publications

References 22 publications

10Boron-film-based gas detectors at ESS

10Boron-film-based gas detectors at ESS

Thermal neutron conversion by high purity 10B-enriched layers: PLD-growth, thickness-dependence and neutron-detection performances

Hybrid halide perovskite neutron detectors

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