Offline Pulse-Shape Discrimination Algorithms for Neutron Spectrum Unfolding

Flaska, Marek; Pozzi, Sara A.

doi:10.1109/nssmic.2006.355962

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…There are, of course, many other ways in which pulses could be represented. One widely used representation associates a pair of real-number values, (Q total , Q tail ), with each pulse [24], [25], [26]. We refer to this pair of values for a given pulse as its Q-value.…”

Section: Q-valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Histogram-Difference Method (HDM) for Neutron/Gamma Discrimination Using Liquid and Plastic Scintillators

French¹,

Thévenin²,

Montbarbon³

2017

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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This paper introduces a novel and extremely simple -and therefore, easily implemented in a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) -method of neutron/gamma pulse discrimination called the Histogram-Difference Method (HDM). Crucially, this method relies on the use of a "reference set" of γonly pulses from 22 Na, 137 Cs and 60 Co sources and on features extracted from the pulses. The pulses from this reference set are compared to a set of an identical number of n+γ pulses from a 252 Cf source. Not only can HDM determine the presence of neutrons in the 252 Cf source, but it can also estimate the approximate percentage of neutron pulses from that source. The results reported in this paper are based on data from different radioactive sources and a standard scintillator for this type of research -namely, BC-501A. These results were confirmed using three other scintillators, one made in-house, and two others that are commercially available, EJ-299-33 and EJ-200. Pulses were encoded using Q-values, which are features extracted from the pulses, i.e., (Q total , Q tail ) pairs in IR 2 . As a control, we also encoded pulses as the Root-Mean-Square (RMS) distances from the average pulse of all known γ-only pulses and ran HDM using these pulse representations. The results are very similar to those obtained using a Q-value encoding of the pulses.

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Section: Q-valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Histogram-Difference Method (HDM) for Neutron/Gamma Discrimination Using Liquid and Plastic Scintillators

French¹,

Thévenin²,

Montbarbon³

2017

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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“…detector waveforms for offline analysis [17,18], in recent years detector readout electronics have become more and more powerful, with increased digitization rate, precision, and on-board processing capabilities. The focus is thus shifting to performing PSD online in the readout electronics [19,20,21].…”

Section: General Purpose Pulse Shape Analysis For Fast Scintillators mentioning

confidence: 99%

General purpose pulse shape analysis for fast scintillators implemented in digital readout electronics

Asztalos

Hennig

Warburton

2016

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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Pulse shape discrimination applied to certain fast scintillators is usually performed offline. In sufficiently high-event rate environments data transfer and storage become problematic, which suggests a different analysis approach. In response, we have implemented a general purpose pulse shape analysis algorithm in the XIA Pixie-500 and Pixie-500 Express digital spectrometers. In this implementation waveforms are processed in real time, reducing the pulse characteristics to a few pulse shape analysis parameters and eliminating time-consuming waveform transfer and storage. We discuss implementation of these features, their advantages, necessary trade-offs and performance. Measurements from bench top and experimental setups using fast scintillators and XIA processors are presented.

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Pulse shape discrimination properties of plastic scintillators incorporating a rationally designed highly soluble and polymerizable derivative of 9,10-diphenylanthracene

Hajagos¹,

Kishpaugh²,

Pei³

2016

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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A highly soluble and polymerizable derivative of 9,10-diphenylanthracene was designed and synthesized specifically to be capable of achieving very high loadings (at least 50 wt.%) when copolymerized with a polyvinyltoluene (PVT) matrix. The resulting heavily crosslinked plastics are mechanically hard and robust, and were found to have exceptional clarity with no sign of dye precipitation. Samples of these plastics both with and without added wavelength shifter were characterized for light yield, scintillation decay, and pulse shape discrimination (PSD) performance for α/γ discrimination, and the results were compared to that of a commercially available PSD plastic, EJ-299-34. The best performing formulation, with a primary dye loading of 50 wt.%, had a measured light yield of 9950 photons/MeV, and achieved a PSD figure-of-merit (FOM) of 1.05, the latter indicating that while the present material is not suited for practical applications, the overall approach demonstrates a proof-of-concept of PSD in highly loaded plastics stabilized through copolymerization of the primary dye, and suggests that further improvements through better dye choice/design may yet be achievable.The variation in pulse shape originating from excitation from different high-energy 2 particles is the origin of the technique of pulse shape discrimination (PSD), a tech-3 nique that can be used to actively identify the type of the detected particle. In contrast 4 to inorganic scintillators, which are among the best materials for γ-ray detection and 5 spectroscopy, organic materials are among the most widely used materials for PSD ap-6 plications [1], a primary example of which is the use of PSD based detection methods 7 for fast-n/γ discrimination, which is of particular interest for the detection of special 8 nuclear material (SNM). The PSD properties of organic scintillators have a long his-9 tory dating back to the 1950's [2]. Organic crystals are among the highest performing 10 materials for n/γ PSD, with single crystal trans-stilbene being readily considered as 11 having the best known PSD performance [2, 3]. On the other hand, PSD is readily 12 achievable in conventional liquid scintillator solutions, which have distinct advantage 13 over organic crystals in terms of cost, scalability, and ease of manufacture and han-14 dling. There are some distinct disadvantages of organic liquids, including concerns 15 over toxicity, flammability, the potential for leaks, and the necessity of maintaining 16 strict oxygen free conditions of the solution throughout its life, all of which are even 17 more problematic in the context of very large detector sizes. Despite these shortcom-18 ings, liquid scintillator solutions are among the most widely used detector materials for 19 fast neutron spectroscopy and n/γ discrimination. 20For other types of detection, plastic scintillators offer many distinct advantages over 21 organic or even inorganic crystals and liquid scintillator solutions, most notably low 22 cost, very good scalability, and great ease of use a...

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Offline Pulse-Shape Discrimination Algorithms for Neutron Spectrum Unfolding

Cited by 3 publications

References 6 publications

A Histogram-Difference Method (HDM) for Neutron/Gamma Discrimination Using Liquid and Plastic Scintillators

A Histogram-Difference Method (HDM) for Neutron/Gamma Discrimination Using Liquid and Plastic Scintillators

General purpose pulse shape analysis for fast scintillators implemented in digital readout electronics

Pulse shape discrimination properties of plastic scintillators incorporating a rationally designed highly soluble and polymerizable derivative of 9,10-diphenylanthracene

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