Yang Yigang

High efficiency event-counting thermal neutron imaging using a Gd-doped micro-channel plate

An event-counting thermal neutron imaging detector based on 3 mol % natGd2O3-doped micro-channel plate (MCP) has been developed and tested. A thermal neutron imaging experiment was carried out with a low flux neutron beam. Detection efficiency of 33% was achieved with only one doped MCP. The spatial resolution of 72 μm RMS is currently limited by the readout anode. A detector with larger area and improved readout method is now being developed.

Application of a wedge strip anode in micro-pattern gaseous detectors

The wedge strip anode (WSA) has been widely used in 2-D position-sensitive detectors. A circular WSA with an effective diameter of 52 mm is successfully coupled to a tripe gas electron multiplier (GEM) detector through a simple resistive layer. A spatial resolution of 440 μm (FWHM) is achieved for a 10 kVp X-ray using 1 atm Ar:CO2=70:30 gas. The simple electronics of only three channels makes it very useful in applications strongly requiring simple interface design, e.g. sealed tubes and high pressure detectors.

A numerical model of a coated capillary-plate thermal neutron collimator

A novel thermal neutron collimator was successfully fabricated by coating the inner surface of the capillary plate (CP) with gadolinium oxide using atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology. This CP-based collimator is efficient and compact. A numerical model is presented in the paper to estimate the main performance characteristics of the collimator and to optimize the design for specific applications. According to the results of the calculation based on currently available CPs, the FWHM of the collimators rocking curve can be smaller than 0.15° while suppressing more than 99.9% of the incident thermal neutrons on the double wings of the curve. Such a coated CP is as thin as 1.25 mm or even thinner, providing high angular resolution with good transmission in a very limited space.