Abstract
Neutron radiation detector for nuclear reactor applications plays an important role in getting information about the actual neutron yield and reactor environment. Such detector must be able to operate at high temperature (up to 600° C) and high neutron flux levels. It is worth nothing that a detector for industrial environment applications must have fast and stable response over considerable long period of use as well as high energy resolution. Silicon Carbide is one of the most attractive materials for neutron detection. Thanks to its outstanding properties, such as high displacement threshold energy (20-35 eV), wide band gap energy (3.27 eV) and high thermal conductivity (4.9 W/cm·K), SiC can operate in harsh environment (high temperature, high pressure and high radiation level) without additional cooling system. Our previous analyses reveal that SiC detectors, under irradiation and at elevated temperature, respond to neutrons showing consistent counting rates as function of external reverse bias voltages and radiation intensity. The counting-rate of the thermal neutron-induced peak increases with the area of the detector, and appears to be linear with respect to the reactor power. Diamond is another semi-conductor considered as one of most promising materials for radiation detection. Diamond possesses several advantages in comparison to other semiconductors such as a wider band gap (5.5 eV), higher threshold displacement energy (40-50 eV) and thermal conductivity (22 W/cm·K), which leads to low leakage current values and make it more radiation resistant that its competitors. A comparison is proposed between these two semiconductors for the ability and efficiency to detect fast neutrons. For this purpose the deuterium-tritium neutron generator of Technical University of Dresden with 14 MeV neutron output of 1010 n·s-1 is used. In the present work, we interpret the first measurements and results with both 4H-SiC and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond detectors irradiated with 14 MeV neutrons at room temperature.
Highlights
N EUTRON detector plays a crucial role in many applications where the neutron spectrometry and flux monitoring are important such as the experiments at the material testing reactors (MTR), high energy particle physics experiments or fusion facilities for plasma diagnostics
The capability of the diamond-based detector to perform 14 MeV neutrons spectrometry using the 12C(n,α)9Be reaction with the energy resolution of 1.5-6% has been demonstrated by several authors [4-7]
The count rate of 12C(n,α)9Be reaction was decreased by 7%, energy resolution was decreased by a factor of 2.3 and the peak shifting to the left on 1 MeV was observed
Summary
N EUTRON detector plays a crucial role in many applications where the neutron spectrometry and flux monitoring are important such as the experiments at the material testing reactors (MTR), high energy particle physics experiments or fusion facilities for plasma diagnostics. These last years the semiconductor-based detectors have received considerable attention thanks to their fast responses, low operating voltage, high energy resolution and radiation resistance. The capability of the diamond-based detector to perform 14 MeV neutrons spectrometry using the 12C(n,α)9Be reaction with the energy resolution of 1.5-6% has been demonstrated by several authors [4-7]. The FWHM value of the 12C(n,α0)9Be peak increased by 11.8 % at 500 °C (-20V) with respect to the estimated FWHM at room temperature (-280V)
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