Comparison of Thermal Neutron Detection Efficiency of ${}^6$Li Scintillation Glass and ${}^3$He Gas Proportional Tube

Abstract

We report on a comparison study of the ${}^3$He gas proportional tube and the ${}^6$Li incorporated scintillation glasses on thermal neutron detection efficiency. Both ${}^3$He and ${}^6$Li are used commonly for thermal neutron detection because of their high neutron capture absorption coefficient. By using a neutron source ${}^{252}$Cf and a paraffin moderator in an alignment system, we can get a small beam of thermal neutrons. A flash ADC is used to measure the thermal neutron spectrum of each detector, and the detected number of events is determined from the spectrum, then we can calculate the detection efficiency of different detectors. Meanwhile, the experiment have been modeled with GEANT4 to validate the results against the Monte Carlo simulation.

6 pages, 6 figures