A performance study on a phoswich detector consisting of an inner NE213 scintillator and an outer CaF 2(Eu) crystal wall

Abstract

We developed a new phoswich detector. The detector consists of an inner NE213 organic liquid scintillator and an outer thin CaF 2(Eu) crystal which are coupled to a photomultiplier. The charged particles produced in the NE213 scintillator by the interaction of radiation with the detector either stop in the NE213 scintillator or pass through both the NE213 scintillator and the outer CaF 2(Eu) crystal. The fast output pulses of a few ns from the NE213 scintillator can easily be separated from the slow output pulses of about 1 μs from the outer CaF 2(Eu) scintillator. From this difference, the events that the charged particle stops inside NE213 scintillator can be separated out from the events that the charged particle escapes from the inside NE213 detector. The phoswich detector response functions for gamma rays and neutrons measured with the radioactive gamma-ray sources and the neutrons produced by a Be + Cu target bombarded by protons from the cyclotron, and compared with Monte Carlo calculations. It was found that the main characteristics of the NE213 scintillator were not degraded by assembling as a phoswich detector using the CaF 2(Eu) crystal wall. The n-γ discrimination property is slightly degraded but neutrons can be separated from gamma rays. Further we used to test the phoswich detector for neutron measurements under the intense charged particles, mainly protons, with considering the possibility of neutron detection in space crafts. It was shown that the phoswich detector is capable of detecting neutrons in the mixed field.