First GEANT4-based simulation investigation of a Li-coated resistive plate chamber for low-energy neutrons

A simulation study of the performance of a single-gap resistive plate chamber coated with Li-layer for the detection of low energy neutrons was performed by means of GEANT4 Monte Carlo code. Low energy neutrons were detected via 7Li(n, α ) 3He nuclear reaction. To make the detector sensitive to low energy neutrons, Li- coating was employed both on the forward and backward electrodes of the converter. Low energy neutrons were transported onto the Li-coating RPC by GEANT4 MC code. A detector with converter area of 5×5 cm2 was utilized for this work. The detection response was evaluated as a function of incident low energy neutrons in the range of 25 MeV–100 MeV. The evaluated results predicted higher detection response for the backward-coated converter detector than that of forward coated converter RPC setup. This type of detector can be useful for the detection of low energy neutrons.