Fast neutron measurements with solid state detectors at pulsed spallation sources

Abstract

Fast neutron measurements have been performed with silicon and diamond detectors at nTOF, ChipIr, and CHARM facilities. The detectors have been used in pulse mode; the deposited energy and time stamp is measured event by event for each signal above threshold. The pulsed nature of the spallation sources gives high instantaneous counting rates that dictate the use of a fast electronic chain including a current preamplifier and digital acquisition. The energy-dependent response functions of these detectors to fast neutrons can be extracted from nTOF data using time-of-flight to provide energy tagging. These measured response functions can then be used both to benchmark Monte Carlo simulations of the response functions and to interpret the measurements at ChipIR and CHARM, facilities used for the irradiation of microelectronics, where time-of-flight energy measurement at these neutron energies is not possible.

Measurements of Low-Energy Protons Using a Silicon Detector for Application to SEE Testing

“…Silicon detectors are widely used in high-energy physics and nuclear physics experiments [18] and recent developments have been pushed by the application of digital acquisition systems [19,20]. The detector, with some differences in the electronic chain, was used successfully for dosimetry of high energy neutrons and mixed field [21,22], and ultra-high energy ions [23][24][25].…”