Improvements in apparatus and procedures for using an organic liquid scintillator as a fast-neutron spectrometer for radiation protection applications

Abstract

For use in radiation protection measurements, a neutron spectrometer must have a wide energy range, good sensitivity, medium resolution, and ease of taking and reducing data. No single spectrometer meets all of these requirements. Several experiments aimed at improving and characterizing the detector response to gamma rays and neutrons were conducted. A light pipe (25 mm) was needed between the scintillator cell and the photomultiplier tube to achieve the best resolution. The light output of the scintillator as a function of gamma-ray energy was measured. Three experiments were conducted to determine the light output as a function of neutron energy. Monte Carlo calculations were made to evaluate the effects of multiple neutron scattering and edge effects in the detector. The electronic systems associated with the detector were improved with a transistorized circuit providing the bias voltage for the photomultiplier tube dynodes. This circuit was needed to obtain pulse-height linearity over the wide range of signal sizes. A special live-time clock was built to compensate for the large amount of dead time generated by the pulse-shape discrimination circuit we chose to use. 64 refs., 58 figs., 9 tabs.