Abstract

The possibility was studied of using highly efficient heavy inorganic oxide solid-state scintillation detectors for the detection of mixed gamma-neutron radiation. In the detection of gamma-neutron radiation, the gamma detection efficiency for such detectors reaches 70–80%, with neutron detection efficiency not less than 40%. Detection efficiencies were measured for the heavy oxide scintillator crystals CWO (CdWO4), ZWO (ZnWO4), BGO (Bi4Ge3O12), GSO (Gd2SiO5), YSO:Ce (Y2SiO5:Ce) and LuAG:Ce (Lu3Al5O12:Ce). For comparison purposes, the scintillators NaI:Tl, LiI:Eu, ZnSe(Te), CsI(Tl) were also considered. The dependencies of detection efficiency on Zeff, thickness and area of the detector were obtained. To eliminate the effects of accompanying gamma-radiation in the detection of neutrons, suppression of gamma-background was studied using lead protection of 2–40 mm thickness as well as a protection screen consisting of a cylindrical ring of BGO with an internal diameter of 40 mm and an external diameter 60 mm surrounding a cylindrical CWO scintillator detector of dimension 40×40 mm. Suppression of the gamma background by factors of 2–10 was achieved with passive protection. With the BGO screen in an active mode, gamma background suppression reached 103. Also, an original “windows” method [1] of data analysis was proposed for mathematical processing of gamma background, with appropriate software, allowing us to reach neutron/gamma ratios from 105 to 107.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call