title: COMPARISON STUDY OF VARIOUS PLASTICS AS THE WALL MATERIAL OF THGEM-BASED MICRODOSEMETERS FOR FAST NEUTRON MEASUREMENTS.
abstract: To find appropriate substitutions for the expensive plastics of A-150 and rexolite used in the construction of thick gas electron multiplier (THGEM)-based tissue-equivalent proportional counters, in the present work, the responses of a THGEM-based microdosimetric detector made of A-150 and rexolite and three others composed of plexiglas (PMMA), polyethylene and polystyrene plastics as the wall materials have been compared. Lineal energy distribution, frequency-averaged lineal energy, dose-averaged lineal energy, mean quality factor and dose-equivalent for 0.1, 1 and 10 MeV neutrons and also for 241Am-Be neutrons are calculated using Geant4 simulation toolkit. Frequency-averaged lineal energy, dose-averaged lineal energy, mean quality factor and dose-equivalent values for all plastics are found similar. In addition, the response of an indigenously constructed microdosemeter with PMMA walls is also measured for 241Am-Be neutrons. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation predictions. Conclusively, it was found that the three considered plastics can be used as good candidates instead of A-150 and rexolite plastics in fast neutron microdosimetry.
authors.affiliation: Radiation Applications Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, AEOI, PO Box 11365-3486, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moslehi
authors.affiliation: Radiation Applications Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, AEOI, PO Box 11365-3486, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Raisali
authors.affiliation: Physics and Accelerators Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, AEOI, PO Box 11365-3486, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lamehi
mesh_terms: D004583:Electrons; D005214:Fast Neutrons; D009502:Neutrons; D010969:Plastics; D011874:Radiometry; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics