Towards high-rate RPC-based thermal neutron detectors using low-resistivity electrodes

Abstract

A: We present experimental results on the counting rate measurements for several singlegap 10 B lined resistive plate chambers ( 10 B-RPCs) with anodes made from standard float glass, low-resistivity glass and ceramic. The measurements were performed at the V17 monochromatic neutron beamline (3.35 Å) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. For the 10 B-RPCs with 0.28 mm thick float glass a maximum counting rate density of about 8 × 10 3 Hz/cm 2 was obtained. In the case of low resistivity glass and ceramic, the counting rate density did not deviate from linear dependence on the neutron flux up to the maximum flux available at this beamline and exceeded a value of 3 × 10 4 Hz/cm 2 .

Statistical position reconstruction for RPC-based thermal neutron detectors

“…The beam, irradiating the detector normally, was collimated to have the shape approximately equal to the readout area of the detector. The beam was attenuated with boroncontaining glass plates and it was confirmed that the counting rate of the detector scales linearly with the neutron flux [9].…”

In-beam test results of an RPC-based module for position-sensitive neutron detectors with timing readout

“…First, the accuracy of the neutron ToF determination is enhanced by pinpointing the neutron conversion point along the beam direction, eliminating the uncertainty of about 0.4 μs corresponding to the neutron flight time through the cathode plate. Second, the 𝑋𝑌 spatial resolution of the detector can be improved by taking into account the fraction of a millimetre misalignments between the arrays of the upper and lower interconnected strips, often introduced during the detector assembly [5].…”

“…LIP-Coimbra laboratory is developing a neutron detection technology based on Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) coated with 10 B 4 C solid neutron converters [1][2][3][4][5][6]. This work is conducted in collaboration with the Detector Coatings Workshop of the European Spallation Source (ESS), which develops and manufactures the neutron converter coatings [7][8][9].…”

“…The feasibility of the 10 B-RPC technology for building high-efficiency neutron detectors with sub-millimeter spatial resolution has already been demonstrated [3,5]. Compared to the other neutron detection technologies not based on the 3 He, it also offers an attractive combination of high modularity, scalability to large areas, and low cost per unit area [1].…”