Development of a Gaseous Proton-Recoil Detector for neutron flux measurements between 0.2 and 2 MeV neutron energy

P. Marini (1) , L. Mathieu (1) , M. Aïche (1) , T. Chiron (1) , P. Hellmuth (1) , J.L. Pedroza (1) , G. Kessedjian (2) , S. Czajkowski (1) , B. Jurado (1) , I. Tsekhanovich (1)

1 CENBG - Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan
2 LPSC - Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie

Absolute measurements of neutron fluence are an essential prerequisite of neutron-induced cross section measurements, dosimetric investigations and neutron beam lines characterisation. Independent and precise neutron flux measurements can be performed with respect to the H(n,p) elastic cross section. However, the use of silicon proton recoil detectors is not straightforward below incident neutron energy of 1 MeV, due to a high background in the detected proton spectrum. A new gaseous proton-recoil detector has been designed to answer the challenge. The detector is described in details and results of the commissioning tests are presented.

Domaines: Physique [physics]

P. Marini, L. Mathieu, M. Aïche, T. Chiron, P. Hellmuth, et al.. Development of a Gaseous Proton-Recoil Detector for neutron flux measurements between 0.2 and 2 MeV neutron energy. 5th International Workshop On Nuclear Data Evaluation for Reactor Applications, Oct 2018, Aix-en-Provence, France. pp.03010, ⟨10.1051/epjconf/201921103010⟩. ⟨hal-02159733⟩