A semiconductor-based neutron detection system for planetary exploration

TL;DR

This paper presents a compact semiconductor-based neutron detection system using microstructured detectors and moderators, capable of mapping thermal and epithermal neutrons for planetary exploration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel modular neutron detection system with layered MSNDs and moderators, demonstrating effective differentiation of neutron energies in a planetary exploration context.

Findings

Prototypes successfully detect and differentiate neutron energies.

Experimental configurations show promising performance.

System is suitable for future planetary exploration missions.

Abstract

We explore the use of microstructured semiconductor neutron detectors (MSNDs) to map the ratio between thermal neutrons and higher energy neutrons. The system consists of alternating layers of modular neutron detectors (MNDs), each comprising arrays of twenty-four MSNDs, and high-density polyethylene moderators (HDPE) with gadolinium shielding to filter between thermal neutrons and higher energy neutrons. We experimentally measured the performance of three different configurations and demonstrated that the sensor system prototypes detect and differentiate thermal and epithermal neutrons. We discuss future planetary exploration applications of this compact, semiconductor-based low-energy neutron detection system.