Year
2010
Abstract
Neutron ?ux monitors are commonly used for a variety of nuclear physics applications. A scintillating neutron detector, consisting of a liquid scintillator loaded with ?ssionable material, has been developed, characterized, and tested in a neutron beam line at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, and shows a signi?cant improvement in neutron sensi- tivity compared with a conventional ?ssion chamber. Recent research on nanocomposite- based scintillators for gamma-ray detection indicates that this approach can be extended to load nanoparticles of ?ssionable material into a scintillating matrix, with up to three orders of magnitude higher loading than typical ?ssion chambers. This will result in a rugged, cost-e?cient detector with high e?ciency, a short signal rise time, and the ability to be used in low neutron-?ux environments.