Characterization of a Li-6 loaded liquid organic scintillator for fast neutron spectrometry and thermal neutron detection

TL;DR

This paper presents the development and characterization of a lithium-6 loaded liquid scintillator for detecting fast and thermal neutrons, demonstrating its optical properties and neutron response through experimental measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Li-6 loaded liquid scintillator and evaluates its performance in neutron spectrometry and detection, including experimental light output spectra.

Findings

Effective neutron detection with Li-6 loaded scintillator

Measured light output spectra for various neutron sources

Discussion of potential improvements in spectrometer performance

Abstract

The characterization of a liquid scintillator incorporating an aqueous solution of enriched lithium chloride to produce a scintillator with 0.40% Li-6 is presented, including the performance of the scintillator in terms of its optical properties and neutron response. The scintillator was incorporated into a fast neutron spectrometer, and the light output spectra from 2.5 MeV, 14.1 MeV, and Cf-252 neutrons were measured using capture-gated coincidence techniques. The spectrometer was operated without coincidence to perform thermal neutron measurements. Possible improvements in spectrometer performance are discussed.