Double scatter neutron time-of-flight spectrometer as a plasma diagnostic

Walker, Susan; Preszler, A. M.; Millard, W. A.

doi:10.1063/1.1139167

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…The first directional neutron scatter camera measured the double proton recoil in two separate planes of plastic scintillator to determine a crude estimate of the angular resolution of the neutron 10 . Using this method, first presented in 1985 11,12 , neutron energy can be determined through a combination of peak amplitude measured in the primary plane followed by a time-of-flight measurement in the second plane. Leveraging the estimated locations of proton scatters in each plane in conjunction with the energy lost from the pulse amplitude in the 1st plane produces a cone of directionality whose angle is determined by rudimentary kinematic equations for elastic scattering.…”

Section: B Neutron Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

miniTimeCube as a neutron scatter camera

Jocher

Koblanski

et al. 2019

AIP Advances

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We present Monte Carlo (MC) simulation results from a study of a compact plastic-scintillator detector suitable for imaging fast neutrons in the 1 -10 MeV energy range: the miniTimeCube (mTC). Originally designed for antineutrino detection, the mTC consists of 24 MultiChannel Plate (MCP) photodetectors surrounding a 13 cm cube of boron-doped plastic scintillator. Our simulation results show that waveform digitization of 1536 optically sensitive channels surrounding the scintillator should allow for spatiotemporal determination of individual neutron-proton scatters in the detector volume to ∼ 100 picoseconds and ∼5 mm. A Bayesian estimation framework is presented for multiple-scatter reconstruction, and is used to estimate the incoming direction and energy of simulated individual neutrons. Finally, we show how populations of reconstructed neutrons can be used to estimate the direction and energy spectrum of nearby simulated neutron sources.

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Section: B Neutron Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

miniTimeCube as a neutron scatter camera

Jocher

Koblanski

et al. 2019

AIP Advances

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“…A neutron must interact in different pillars to reconstruct the scintillation position for both scatter events. We have all the information needed to back-project a cone of incident neutron angles using Equation 6.…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The device consisted of two large planes of mineral oil liquid scintillator, optically separated into four cells per plane, located 1 m apart. In 1986, a double scatter fast neutron detector measured the neutron energy spectrum from a thermonuclear plasma source by utilizing the time of flight of neutrons between successive scatters [6]. In 1992, researchers measured the energy spectrum (15 MeV to 100 MeV) and direction of neutrons discharged from solar flares using neutron double scatter events [7,8].…”

Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model-based design evaluation of a compact, high-efficiency neutron scatter camera

Weinfurther

Mattingly

Brubaker

et al. 2018

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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This paper presents the model-based design and evaluation of an instrument that estimates incident neutron direction using the kinematics of neutron scattering by hydrogen-1 nuclei in an organic scintillator. The instrument design uses a single, nearly contiguous volume of organic scintillator that is internally subdivided only as necessary to create optically isolated pillars, i.e., long, narrow parallelepipeds of organic scintillator. Scintillation light emitted in a given pillar is confined to that pillar by a combination of total internal reflection and a specular reflector applied to the four sides of the pillar transverse to its long axis. The scintillation light is collected at each end of the pillar using a photodetector, e.g., a microchannel plate photomultiplier (MCP-PM) or a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM). In this optically segmented design, the (x, y) position of scintillation light emission (where the x and y coordinates are transverse to the long axis of the pillars) is estimated as the pillar's (x, y) position in the scintillator "block", and the z-position (the position along the pillar's long axis) is estimated from the amplitude and relative timing of the signals produced by the photodetectors at each end of the pillar. The neutron's incident direction and energy is estimated from the (x, y, z)-positions of two sequential neutron-proton scattering interactions in the scintillator block using elastic scatter kinematics. For proton recoils greater than 1 MeV, we show that the (x, y, z)-position of neutron-proton scattering can be estimated with < 1 cm root-mean-squared [RMS] error and the proton recoil energy can be estimated with < 50 keV RMS error by fitting the photodetectors' response time history to models of optical photon transport within the scintillator pillars. Finally, we evaluate several alternative designs of this proposed single-volume scatter camera made of pillars of plastic scintillator (SVSC-PiPS), studying the effect of pillar dimensions, scintillator material (EJ-204, EJ-232Q and stilbene), and photodetector (MCP-PM vs. SiPM) response vs. time. We demonstrate that the most precise estimates of incident neutron direction and energy can be obtained using a combination of scintillator material with high luminosity and a photodetector with a narrow impulse response. Specifically, we conclude that an SVSC-PiPS constructed using EJ-204 (a high luminosity plastic scintillator) and an MCP-PM will produce the most precise estimates of incident neutron direction and energy.

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“…By combining imaging and spectroscopy capabilities, the method can be applied in a variety of fields, including solar and atmospheric physics, radiation therapy and nuclear materials monitoring, especially the potential application for Special Nuclear Material identification [1,2,4]. The technology of fast neutron double scatter imaging, also known as the neutron scatter camera or the fast neutron imaging telescope, has been proposed since the early 1980 s, but it has been under development since 2006 mainly in the USA [1][2][3][4][5]. In this case, neutron detection relies on double elastic neutron-proton (n-p) scattering in liquid scintillator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%