Multi-purpose fast neutron spectrum analyzer with real-time signal processing

Diagnostics of hot ion component of plasma on the products of fusion reactions is widely used on thermonuclear facilities. In case of employment of neutron spectrometers, based on organics scintillators, there is advanced technique developed to eliminate neutron pulses from gamma background—digital pulse shape discrimination. For every DPSD application it is necessary to use the fast (2–5 ns) and precise (12 bit) transient ADC unit with large amount of onboard memory for storing every digitized scintillation pulses during shot time. At present time the duration of hot thermonuclear plasma burning in large tokamaks approximate to 1 min, and this requires very high onboard memory capacity (∼100 GB). This paper describes a neutron spectrum analyzer with real-time DPSD algorithm, implemented to ADC unit. This approach saves about two orders of onboard memory capacity, gives the possibility of instant use of outcome to feedback systems. This analyzer was tested and calibrated with help of 60Co and 252Cf radiation sources, and deuterium neutron generator.