Neutron beam monitoring system

A neutron monitoring system comprising:

• an entrance window located upstream of a semiconductor layer and defining a first beam-incident surface along a neutron flight path;
• a neutron reactive medium having a thickness of one micrometer that is unitary with the entrance window and that has a neutron absorption rate, for a neutron incident on the entrance window, ranging from about one-tenth to about one-hundred-millionth of incident neutrons, and that produces, when struck by an absorbed neutron, a burst of charged particles that cause excitation of media along paths traveled by the charged particles;
• a plurality of semiconductor junctions each sandwiched between a semiconductor junction anode electrode and a semiconductor junction cathode electrode, wherein the semiconductor junction anode electrode and the semiconductor cathode electrode are electrically biased, during operation of the system, to cause one of the semiconductor junction to be either reverse-biased or unbiased, wherein each semiconductor junction,
• produces, when crossed by a path traveled by a charged particle of the burst, an avalanche of electron and hole pairs, and
• causes the produced electrons and holes to clear the semiconductor junction in less than a nanosecond, wherein each semiconductor junction comprises a Silicon Carbide Schottky diode generating a depletion region positioned between the semiconductor junction anode electrode and the semiconductor junction cathode electrode and directly adjacent the neutron reactive medium such that charged particles generated by a neutron absorption in the neutron reactive medium enter the depletion region, the depletion region having a thickness selected such that, under an applied electrical bias, the electrons and holes drift to the semiconductor junction anode electrode and the semiconductor junction cathode electrode, respectively, in less than a nanosecond, thereby sourcing an electrical current pulse between the semiconductor junction anode electrode and the semiconductor junction cathode electrode, the sourced electrical current pulse corresponding to the burst of charged particles produced by the neutron that struck the neutron reactive medium;
• where the plurality of semiconductor junctions coupled to the neutron reactive medium has an absorption efficiency in a range from about 10−1 to 10−8;
• and
• a neutron registration circuit electrically coupled with the plurality of semiconductor junctions, wherein the neutron registration circuit amplifies and conditions the electrical current pulses that are sourced through the semiconductor junction anode and the semiconductor junction cathode electrodes to record neutron-beam intensity measurements and neutron-beam localization measurements;
• and
• a processor that renders a two-dimensional image of radiation sources in real time and renders spectral data comprising a time-of-flight of the neutron incident and a plurality of pulse parameters.