The use of hydrogenous material for sensitizing pMOS dosimeters to neutrons

This paper is concerned with the application of pMOS dosimeters to measuring neutron dose by the use of hydrogenous materials to convert incident neutron flux to recoil protons. These latter charged particles can generate electron-hole pairs, and consequently, charge trapping takes place at the MOS interfaces, and threshold voltage shifts are produced. The use of pMOS devices for measuring gamma doses has been described extensively in the literature. Clearly, if measurable voltage shifts could be generated in a MOS device by neutrons, then a radiation detection instrument containing two MOS devices, back to back, with hydrogenous shields, and one MOS dosimeter without a converter would allow 4π measurements of neutron and gamma doses to be made. The results obtained in this study indicate that paraffin or polyethylene will convert incident, 2.82 MeV neutrons to recoil protons, which subsequently cause measurable voltage shifts