Tak-Pui Lou

Investigation of CaF2:Eu scintillator for D-D neutron interrogation

CaF2:Eu is an attractive radiation detection material because it is inert, non-hygroscopic, shock resistant, and can be less expensive than other radiation detection materials. A CaF2:Eu scintillation detector was constructed to identify whether energy dependent differences in (n,p) and (n,α) cross sections could be exploited to distinguish fission neutrons from D-D neutrons in an active interrogation system. Experimentally, the charged particles are difficult to distinguish from the significantly larger number of γ-rays produced in (n,γ) reactions. In addition, modeling results show that fission neutrons produce only slightly higher charged particle production rates than D-D neutrons. For charged particle production in CaF2:Eu to succeed in fission neutron detection, a superior γ-ray discrimination technique is required.