DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION NEUTRON DETECTOR

NEUTRON SCATTERING STUDIES HAVE BEEN USUALLY CARRIED OUT USING SINGLE DETECTORS. IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, THE USE OF SPATIALLY RESOLVING DETECTORS HAS RESULTED IN BETTER STATISTICAL ACCURACY WITH SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCED DATA COLLECTIONS TIMES. ALTHOUGH, THE COMMONLY USED NEUTRON DETECTOR ARRAY CONSISTING OF MULITWIRE HE-3 CAMERA IS CAPABLE OF EXCELLENT PHOTONIC BACKGROUND REJECTION, ITS USE IS SEVERELY LIMITED DUE TO LOW SPATIAL RESOLUTION AND COUNT RATE LIMITATIONS. TO OVERCOME THESE DIFFICULTIES, DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW CLASS OF HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION NEUTRON DETECTORS BASED UPON SUPERCONDUCTING ENERGY-SENSITIVE STRUCTURES IS PLANNED. A DETECTOR WITH A FEW SQUARE CENTIMETER AREA, EXCELLENT SPATIAL RESOLUTIN AND HIGH DETECTION EFFICIENCY WILL BE DEVELOPED. THE CRUCIAL COMONENT OF THIS DETECTOR WILL BE A LARGE ARRAY (2048 X 2048) OF SUPERCONDUCTING SENSORS DEPOSITED ON THE SURFACE OF A NEUTRON ABSORBER (E.G. BORON, BORON NITRIDE, OR LITHIUM HYDRIDE) WHICH WILL ACT AS A NEUTRON TO ALPHA PARTICLE "CONVERTER". SUCH A DETECTOR CAN ATTAIN A SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF A FEW TENS OF MICRONS WITH A REASONABLE NUMBER ( 256) OF READOUT CHANNELS. IN PHASE I, A PROTOTYPE DETECTOR ON THE SURFACE OF A BORON NITRITE SUBSTRATE WILL BE FABRICATED. FURTHEMORE, A MULTICHANNEL ELECTRONIC READOUT SYSTEM WILL BE DEVELOPED TO ENABLE QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENTS OF THE SPATIAL RESOLUTION AND QUANTUM DETECTION EFFICIENCY.