Neutron time of flight (nToF) detectors for inertial fusion experiments

Abstract

Neutrons generated in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiments provide valuable information to interpret the conditions reached in the plasma. The neutron time-of-flight (nToF) technique is well suited for measuring the neutron energy spectrum due to the short time (100 ps) over which neutrons are typically emitted in ICF experiments. By locating detectors 10s of meters from the source, the neutron energy spectrum can be measured to high precision. We present a contextual review of the current state of the art in nToF detectors at ICF facilities in the United States, outlining the physics that can be measured, the detector technologies currently deployed and analysis techniques used.

Source localization for neutron imaging systems using convolutional neural networks

“…At the NIF, this neutron yield can be measured accurately using other diagnostics such as neutron time-of-flight. 17 For our synthetic data, we can manually choose a neutron yield and pass it as a parameter to our forward model. For this work, we generate all sources with a yield of 10 15 , which is a typical yield for many NIF shots.…”