A Micromegas-based gaseous detector for neutron-induced charged-particle reaction studies in nuclear astrophysics

Abstract

The quasistellar neutron spectrum produced via ${}^7$Li($p$, $n$)${}^7$Be reaction at a proton energy of 1.912 MeV has been extensively studied and employed reaction for neutron-induced reaction studies. We are working towards using this reaction at various proton energies from 1.9 MeV to 3.6 MeV to produce a neutron field at a temperature range of $\sim$1.5-3.5 GK to conduct measurements of neutron-induced charge particle reaction cross sections on various unstable nuclei at explosive stellar temperatures. In this paper, we are reporting our design and simulation study with regards to experimental set-up and a gaseous detector with a segmented Micromegas detector for conducting neutron-induced charge particle reactions studies for nuclei of astrophysics importance, for example, ${}^{26}$Al($n$, $p$)${}^{26}$Mg, ${}^{26}$Al($n$, $\alpha$)${}^{23}$Na and ${}^{40}$K($n$, $p$)${}^{40}$Ar, ${}^{40}$K($n$, $\alpha$)${}^{37}$Cl reactions. We plan to perform our experiments with a 10-$\mu$A proton beam at the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt facility (PTB, Germany), with a Micromegas-based gaseous detector under construction as discussed in the paper.