SANDD: A directional antineutrino detector with segmented 6Li-doped pulse-shape-sensitive plastic scintillator

TL;DR

This paper introduces SANDD, a small, mobile antineutrino detector with segmented plastic scintillators doped with 6Li, capable of near-field reactor monitoring and directional detection with quantified efficiency and angular resolution.

Contribution

The paper presents the design, simulation, and characterization of a novel segmented plastic scintillator detector for antineutrino detection and directional measurement.

Findings

Neutron detection efficiency of 34.8%

Positron detection efficiency of 80.2%

Directional sensitivity with 20-degree uncertainty per 100 events

Abstract

We present a characterization of a small (9-liter) and mobile 0.1% 6Li-doped pulse-shape-sensitive plastic scintillator antineutrino detector called SANDD (Segmented AntiNeutrino Directional Detector), constructed for the purpose of near-field reactor monitoring with sensitivity to antineutrino direction. SANDD comprises three different types of module. A detailed Monte Carlo simulation code was developed to match and validate the performance of each of the three modules. The combined model was then used to produce a prediction of the performance of the entire detector. Analysis cuts were established to isolate antineutrino inverse beta decay events while rejecting large fraction of backgrounds. The neutron and positron detection efficiencies are estimated to be 34.8% and 80.2%, respectively, while the coincidence detection efficiency is estimated to be 71.7%, resulting in inverse beta decay detection efficiency of 20.05 +/- 0.2%(stat.) +/- 2.1%(syst.). The predicted directional sensitivity of SANDD produces an uncertainty of 20 degree in the azimuthal direction per 100 detected antineutrino events.