Lithium-Loaded Plastic Scintillators for the Detection of Thermal Neutrons

Nemchenok, I.; Kamnev, I. I.; Shevchik, E.; Suslov, I. A.

doi:10.3103/s1062873821050154

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

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“…Table 1 summarizes various properties of common neutron capture agents that can be utilized in combination with plastic scintillators. Development of lithium-loaded plastic scintillators has recently been an active area of research [43][44][45][46][47]. To the best of our knowledge, commercial production has not been launched to date.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of a mobile neutron spectrometer for the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS)

Solmaz,

Balzer,

Eitel

et al. 2023

J. Inst.

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Environmental neutrons are a source of background for rare event searches (e.g., dark matter direct detection and neutrinoless double beta decay experiments) taking place in deep underground laboratories. The overwhelming majority of these neutrons are produced in the cavern walls by means of intrinsic radioactivity of the rock and concrete. Their flux and spectrum depend on time and location. Precise knowledge of this background is necessary to devise sufficient shielding and veto mechanisms, improving the sensitivity of the neutron-susceptible underground experiments. In this report, we present the design and the expected performance of a mobile neutron detector for the LNGS underground laboratory. The detector is based on capture-gated spectroscopy technique and comprises essentially a stack of plastic scintillator bars wrapped with gadolinium foils. The extensive simulation studies demonstrate that the detector will be capable of measuring ambient neutrons at low flux levels (∼10-6 n/cm2/s) at LNGS, where the ambient gamma flux is by about 5 orders of magnitude larger.

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