title: Characterization of R-134a superheated droplet detector for neutron detection.
abstract: R-134a (C2H2F4) is a low cost, easily available and chlorine free refrigerant, which in its superheated state can be used as an efficient neutron detector. Due to its high solubility in water the R-134a based superheated droplet detectors (SDD) are usually very unstable unless the detector is fabricated using a suitable additive, which stabilizes the detector. The SDD is known to have superheated droplets distributed in a short-lived and in a relatively long-lived metastable states. We have studied the detector response to neutrons using a (241)AmBe neutron source and obtained the temperature variation of the nucleation parameters and the interstate kinetics of these droplets using a two-state model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Bose Institute, 93/1 A.P.C. Road, Kolkata 700009, India. Electronic address: prasanna@bose.res.in.
authors.forename: Prasanna Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Mondal
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Bose Institute, 93/1 A.P.C. Road, Kolkata 700009, India. Electronic address: sarkar_rupa2003@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Rupa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Bose Institute, 93/1 A.P.C. Road, Kolkata 700009, India. Electronic address: barun_k_chatterjee@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Barun Kumar
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
keywords: Neutron detector; Nucleation; Nucleation efficiency; R-134a; Superheated droplet detector; Two-state model