New Organic Crystals for Pulse Shape Discrimination

Author

Hull, Giulia ; Zaitseva, Natalia P. ; Cherepy, Nerine J. ; Newby, Jason R. ; Stoeffl, Wolfgang ; Payne, Stephen A.

Author_Institution

Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab., Livermore, CA

Volume

56

Issue

3

fYear

2009

fDate

6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

899

Lastpage

903

Abstract

Efficient, readily-available, low-cost, high-energy neutron detectors can play a central role in detecting illicit nuclear weapons since neutrons are a strong indication for the presence of fissile material such as Plutonium and Highly-Enriched Uranium. The main challenge in detecting fast neutrons consists in the discrimination of the signal from the gamma radiation background. At present, the only well-investigated organic crystal scintillator for fast neutron detection, in a n/gamma mixed field, is stilbene, which while offering good pulse shape discrimination, is not widely used because of its limited availability and high cost.

Keywords

neutron detection; position sensitive particle detectors; pulse shaping; scintillation counters; 1,1,4,4-tetraphenyl-1,3-butadiene; anthracene; fast neutron detection; fissile material; gamma radiation background; highly-enriched uranium; neutron detectors; nuclear weapons; organic crystal scintillator; plutonium; pulse shape discrimination; stilbene; Crystalline materials; Crystals; Gamma ray detection; Gamma ray detectors; Gamma rays; Neutrons; Nuclear weapons; Pulse shaping methods; Radiation detectors; Shape; Neutron detectors; scintillation detectors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2009.2015944

Filename

5075983