title: New idea of a small-sized neutron detector with a plastic fibre.
abstract: A small-sized thermal neutron detector based on a (6)Li-glass scintillator and a plastic optical fibre has been developed for precise measurement of the spatial distribution of thermal neutron fluence rate. This detector was tested in experiments performed using thermal neutrons. The detector is useful in a thermal neutron field. However, the gamma-ray discrimination ability of the (6)Li-glass scintillator is not good in a low-intensity thermal neutron field. A new idea using a gamma-ray suppression method is proposed to reduce the uncertainty in the neutron counts due to the gamma-ray background. A novel small-sized thermal neutron detector consists of a (6)Li-glass scintillator, a hollow CsI(Tl) scintillator and plastic optical fibres. The evaluation of the gamma-ray suppression ability of the detector using the EGS4 code indicates that the gamma-ray suppression is effective.
authors.affiliation: National Metrology Institute of Technology, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Central 2, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan. t-matsumoto@aist.go.jp
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Harano
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nishiyama
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Uritani
mesh_terms: D002586:Cesium / Q000737:chemistry; D004867:Equipment Design; D005720:Gamma Rays; D005898:Glass / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007454:Iodides / Q000737:chemistry; D008094:Lithium / Q000737:chemistry; D008904:Miniaturization; D009502:Neutrons; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D055100:Optical Fibers; D010969:Plastics; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D007454:Iodides; D010969:Plastics; D002586:Cesium; D008094:Lithium; C040050:cesium iodide