Neutron hardness of EJ-276 scintillation material

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the fast neutron irradiation (E${}_n$ > 0.5MeV) of an EJ-276 scintillator performed in the MARIA research reactor with fluence up to 5.3$\times$10${}^{15}$ particles/cm${}^2$. In our work, four samples with size $\varphi$25.4~mm$\times$5~mm were tested. The changes in the light yield, emission and absorption spectrum and neutron/gamma discrimination using PuBe source before and after irradiation are presented. The figure of merit in neutron/gamma discrimination based on the charge integration method for different neutron fluences and different short gate integration times are determined.

13 pages, 15 figures