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Characterization of thin-foil ultracold neutron detectors
We have fabricated ultracold neutron detectors that consist of silicon charged particle detectors coupled with thin nickel foils coated with either natural LiF or 10B implanted into vanadium. The foils convert neutrons into energetic, readily detectable, charged particles which are in turn detected...
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Published in: | Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 2009-05, Vol.603 (3), p.421-428 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | We have fabricated ultracold neutron detectors that consist of silicon charged particle detectors coupled with thin nickel foils coated with either natural LiF or
10B implanted into vanadium. The foils convert neutrons into energetic, readily detectable, charged particles which are in turn detected by silicon detectors. The detectors were tested at the Institut Laue-Langevin with a gravitational spectrometer. From a rigorous Monte Carlo simulation of the experiment, the minimum detection cutoff velocities (effective potentials) were determined to be
309
±
17
cm
/
s
(
49.8
±
2.7
neV
) for LiF and
367
±
39
cm
/
s
(
70.3
±
7.5
neV
) for
10B/V. Although the result for LiF is consistent with expectations, the result for
10B/V is significantly higher. We interpret this discrepancy as due to contamination. We also show that while a thicker foil is more efficient for ultracold neutron detection, a thinner foil is more ideal for determining the cutoff velocity. |
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ISSN: | 0168-9002 1872-9576 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.nima.2009.02.014 |