Neutron imager with spaced diamond detector arrays
AssigneeSouthwest Research Institute
InventorKeiichi Ogasawara
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A neutron detector system, with a detector having a pair of spaced diamond detector layers, sandwiched between outer silicon layers. In response to incident neutrons, the detector system measures pulse heights and response times, and from those measurements, calculates the carbon recoil energy and time of flight of scattered neutrons. This data is further used to calculate a “direction cone”, which represents the approximate angle of arrival of the incident neutron. These direction cones can be used to image neutron events.
Claims15
A neutron detector system for detecting the approximate angle of arrival of an incident neutron;
- comprising:
- a diamond detector, comprising two diamond detector layers, spaced a predetermined distance apart;
- two silicon layers, one of the two silicon layers associated with each diamond detector layer;
- wherein the diamond detector layers are both inner layers, and the two silicon layers are outer layers of a sandwich configuration of the diamond detector;
- a pulse height analyzer, operable to measure the pulse height from the diamond detector layer that the incident neutron first encounters, thereby obtaining pulse height data;
- a response time measurement circuit, operable to measure the response time of a recoil between the diamond detector layers, thereby obtaining response time data;
- and
- a direction of arrival process programmed to calculate carbon recoil energy based on pulse height data, to calculate scattered neutron energy based on response time data, and to calculate a direction cone, representing an approximate direction of arrival of the incident neutron, based on carbon recoil energy and scattered neutron energy.
A method of detecting the arrival direction of an incident neutron, comprising:
- scattering the incident neutron, using a diamond detector comprising:
- two diamond detector layers, spaced a predetermined distance apart;
- two silicon layers, one of the two silicon layers associated with each diamond detector layer;
- wherein the diamond detector layers are both inner layers, and the two silicon layers are outer layers of a sandwich configuration of the diamond detector;
- measuring the energy of a carbon recoil resulting from the scattering;
- measuring the time of flight of a scattered neutron within the detector;
- calculating the energy of the scattered neutron, based on the time of flight;
- and
- calculating a half angle, θ, of a cone around the direction of arrival of the incident neutron, based on carbon recoil energy and scattered neutron energy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.