Year
2010
Abstract
Our Nonproliferation and Verification R&D (NA22) office supports many R&D projects concerned with the improvement of gamma ray and neutron detectors, often based on new enabling materials. Some projects are carried out at national laboratories and some at universities. We also assist the DOE Office of Science in selecting projects for small business innovative research. Examples of improvements would be high- resolution room-temperature semiconductors that could replace high-purity germanium, high-brightness medium-resolution scintillators that could replace sodium iodide, and solid state neutron detectors that could replace 3He tubes. The objectives of the program are to enable the development of improved radiation detectors that can distinguish special nuclear materials from naturally occurring radioactive materials as well as industrial and medical sources. The scope of the program includes discovery of new, potentially useful materials; synthesis and crystal growth; material characterization; theory and modeling of material properties; and prototype device fabrication. Many possible compounds and structures have been explored and their properties are being tested under NA-22 sponsorship. In the process, NA-22-sponsored researchers are acquiring a more detailed understanding of the subtle factors that limit their performance in specific devices and applications. While some are quite promising, they still require development before they reach commercial maturity.