First GEANT4-based simulation investigation of a Li-coated resistive plate chamber for low-energy neutrons

Abstract

A simulation study of the performance of a single-gap resistive plate chamber coated with Li-layer for the detection of low energy neutrons was performed by means of GEANT4 Monte Carlo code. Low energy neutrons were detected via 7Li(n, α) 3He nuclear reaction. To make the detector sensitive to low energy neutrons, Li- coating was employed both on the forward and backward electrodes of the converter. Low energy neutrons were transported onto the Li-coating RPC by GEANT4 MC code. A detector with converter area of 5×5cm2 was utilized for this work. The detection response was evaluated as a function of incident low energy neutrons in the range of 25MeV–100MeV. The evaluated results predicted higher detection response for the backward-coated converter detector than that of forward coated converter RPC setup. This type of detector can be useful for the detection of low energy neutrons.