Absolute measurements of the response function of an NE213 organic liquid scintillator for the neutron energy range up to 206 MeV

The absolute values of the neutron response functions of a 12.7 cm diameter by 12.7 cm long NE213 organic liquid scintillator were measured using a quasi-monoenergetic neutron field in the energy range of 66–206 MeV via the 7Li(p,n)7Be reaction in the ring cyclotron facility at RIKEN. The measured response functions were compared with calculations using a Monte Carlo code developed by Cecil et al. The measurements clarified that protons escaping through the scintillator wall induced by high-energy neutrons increase from 6% for 66 MeV neutrons to 35% for 206 MeV neutrons, and that this wall effect causes a difficult problem for n–γ discrimination. Measured response functions without the wall-effect events were also obtained by eliminating the escaping-proton events in the analysis, and compared with calculations using a modified Monte Carlo code. Comparisons between the measurements and calculations both with and without any wall-effect events gave a good agreement, but some discrepancy in the light output distribution could be found, mainly because the deuteron generation process was not taken into account in the calculation. The calculated efficiencies for 10 MeVee threshold, however, also gave good agreement within about 10% with the measurements.