A large area plastic scintillator detector array for fast neutron measurements

TL;DR

This paper describes the development and testing of a large-area plastic scintillator array for fast neutron detection, including calibration, simulation, and application to nuclear reaction measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a new large-area detector array for fast neutrons and validates its performance through measurements and simulations.

Findings

The detector array's efficiency matches Monte Carlo simulations.

The neutron spectrum measurement agrees with statistical model calculations.

The array effectively measures fast neutron spectra in nuclear reactions.

Abstract

A large area plastic scintillator detector array(~ 1 m x1m) has been set up for fast neutron spectroscopy at the BARC-TIFR Pelletron laboratory, Mumbai. The energy, time and position response has been measured for electrons using radioactive sources and for mono-energetic neutrons using the 7Li(p,n1)7Be*(0.429 MeV) reaction at proton energies between 6.3 and 19 MeV. A Monte Carlo simulation of the energy dependent efficiency of the array for neutron detection is in agreement with the 7Li(p,n1) measurements. The array has been used to measure the neutron spectrum, in the energy range of 4-12 MeV, in the reaction 12C+ 93Nb at E(12C)= 40 MeV. This is in reasonable agreement with a statistical model calculation.