High-resolution neutron radiography with microchannel plates: Proof-of-principle experiments at PSI

With the appearance of highly collimated and intense neutron beamlines, the resolution of radiographic experiments is often limited by the parameters of the neutron imaging detector. Neutron-sensitive microchannel plates (MCPs) proved to be very efficient for conversion of a thermal or cold neutron into an electron pulse of up to 106 electrons preserving location of the neutron absorption within ∼15 μm. In this paper, we present the results of preliminary measurements performed with neutron-sensitive MCPs coupled with a Medipix2/Timepix active pixel sensor. A set of test objects was imaged at both thermal and cold neutron imaging beamlines of Paul Scherrer Institute. The spatial resolution of the detector operating at high counting rate mode was confirmed to be limited by the 55 μm pixel size of the Medipix2 readout. At the same time, event centroiding applied to the charge values measured with Timepix readout allowed individual neutron counting with spatial resolution on the scale of MCP pore spacing (11 μm in the present measurements). The ongoing improvement of the speed of the readout electronics should eliminate the low counting rate limitation of the latter high-resolution imaging.