Development of a Bragg-edge Neutron Transmission Imaging Detector Combined with Micro-structured Boron Cathode and Glass Gas Electron Multiplier

Abstract

A neutron detector with a micro-structured boron cathode and a glass gas electron multiplier (GEM) has been developed for time-of-flight Bragg edge neutron transmission imaging. The detector has a field of view of 100 × 100 mm 2 and 128 × 128 pixels (pixel size 0.8 × 0.8 mm 2 ). The neutron imaging performance of the detector was evaluated at a compact electron accelerator-driven neutron source (AISTANS). By comparison with a Li-glass detector, we found that our detector has a detection efficiency of 5% for 4 Å neutrons. In addition, a preliminary time-of-flight neutron imaging test was performed to observe the difference between the face-centered and body-centered cubic crystal structures, from which we confirmed that our detector has sufficient stability and time resolution for use in Bragg edge imaging analysis.

High-tolerance nickel metalized glass gas electron multiplier: development and performance evaluation

“…Micro-pattern gas detectors (MPGDs) are widely used in various applications such as high-energy physics experiments [1][2][3], neutron detectors [4,5], space dosimetry [6], soft X-ray imaging [7][8][9], directional dark matter searches [10], observation of the Migdal effect in neutron scattering with application to direct dark matter searches [11], hadron therapy dosimetry [12,13], and others [14], due to their good spatial resolution, suitability for measuring high-LET radiation, ability in particle tracking, relatively low cost for economically instrumenting large detection areas and low sensitivity to high-energy photons. MPGDs create a high electric field between a small gap of electrodes, which induces an electron avalanche and amplifies the signal.…”