Analytical modeling of the neutron response function of the NE213 organic liquid scintillator in the energy range of 0.2 MeV to 148 MeV

Abstract

Determination of the neutron response function is essential for measuring the energy of neutrons emitted from natural and artificial neutron sources and nuclear reactions. This paper presents the calculation procedure of generating a neutron analytical response function for NE213 scintillation detectors in the energy range of 0.2–148 MeV. To obtain the analytical response function, the available neutron experimental response functions were grouped according to their behavior in different energy ranges. Different analytical functions were fitted to the experimental data of the detector response function for each neutron energy range. The function which best fits the experimental data was selected. Then a computer program was written for calculating the parameters of the analytical function by using the fitting functions and their parameters for each desired energy, and generating the analytical response functions. A comparison of the results shows that the analytical response functions are much faster and more consistent with the experimental response functions than the generated response functions of stand-alone codes and general-purpose Monte Carlo codes.