Investigation of Large LGB Detectors for Antineutrino Detection

TL;DR

This study evaluates a composite detector material combining plastic scintillator and LGB crystal shards for antineutrino detection, focusing on neutron capture identification despite optical limitations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel composite detector material with potential for improved neutron capture identification in antineutrino detection applications.

Findings

Optical properties are marginally acceptable for detection.

Neutron capture identification ability is promising.

Material composition includes 1% LGB shards by mass.

Abstract

A detector material or configuration that can provide an unambiguous indication of neutron capture can substantially reduce random coincidence backgrounds in antineutrino detection and capture-gated neutron spectrometry applications. Here we investigate the performance of such a material, a composite of plastic scintillator and $^6$Li$_6^{nat}$Gd$(^{10}$BO$_{3})_{3}$:Ce (LGB) crystal shards of ~1 mm dimension and comprising 1% of the detector by mass. While it is found that the optical propagation properties of this material as currently fabricated are only marginally acceptable for antineutrino detection, its neutron capture identification ability is encouraging.