Open AccessUSE OF SILICON SURFACE-BARRIER COUNTERS IN FAST-NEUTRON DETECTION AND SPECTROSCOPY
Author(s) -
T.A. Love,
Roger K. Murray
Publication year - 1960
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/4166330
Subject(s) - neutron , neutron temperature , silicon , alpha particle , physics , neutron probe , spectral line , spectroscopy , atomic physics , neutron detection , neutron spectroscopy , neutron source , materials science , analytical chemistry (journal) , nuclear physics , neutron cross section , chemistry , neutron scattering , optoelectronics , quantum mechanics , chromatography , astronomy
A neutron-sensitive semiconductor counter was constructed by depositing a thin layer of Li/sup 6/F between two silicon surface-barrier counters. Neutrons are detected by observing the alpha + T pair resulting from the Li/sup 6/(n, alpha )T reaction; pulses from the two counters are added, and the sum pulse is amplified and recorded on a multichannel analyzer. Since the sandwich geometry permits simultaneous detection of both reaction products, the magnitude of the resulting sum pulse is proportional to the energy of the incoming neutron. Pulse-height spectra from slow neutrons and monoenergetic fast neutrons. in the energy region 0.6 to 3.5 Mev, were recorded from two counters of this type; in both counters the sensitive area was about 0.7 cm/sup 2/, with a Li/sup 6/F layer of order 150 mu g/cm thick. In all cases. a well defined neutron peak was observed in the pulse-height spectrum. In a typical case the full width at half maximum of the fast-neutron peak was about 300 kev. Counters of this type are relatively insensitive to background effects, notably gamma rays, and thus may prove to be useful in the detection and spectroscopy of fast neutrons. (auth