Boron-10 Loaded BC523A Liquid Scintillator for Neutron Detection in the Border Monitoring

• Published in: IEEE transactions on nuclear science Vol. 55; no. 6; pp. 3710 - 3716
• Main Authors: Swiderski, L., Moszynski, M., Wolski, D., Batsch, T., Nassalski, A., Syntfeld-Kazuch, A., Szczesniak, T., Kniest, F., Kusner, M.R., Pausch, G., Stein, J., Klamra, W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.12.2008; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Borders; Boron-10; Capture (nuclear); Detectors; Discrimination; Energy capture; Gamma rays; Gating and risering; liquid scintillators; Liquids; Monitoring; n-gamma discrimination; neutron detection; Neutrons; Photomultipliers; Pulse shaping methods; rays; Resolution; Shape; Testing; Thermal loading; Thermal neutrons; wall; zero-crossing method
• ISSN: 0018-9499; 1558-1578; 1558-1578
• DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2008.2006172

A BC523A liquid scintillator loaded with boron-10 was tested as a detector for both fast and thermal neutrons. A pulse shape discrimination (PSD) method based on a zero-crossing principle was applied to distinguish between neutron and gamma radiation. High quantum efficiency Photonis XP5500B photomultiplier was used to enhance light detection from the scintillator. This allowed a good registration of the energy spectrum of neutron capture events on boron-10, corresponding to about 60 keV gamma-rays. The applied PSD method proved to be useful for n/gamma discrimination. A good resolving power of the method was achieved even without gating on neutron capture events. A comparison with a standard BC501A liquid scintillator was done to evaluate thermal neutrons detection efficiency in BC523A.