Thermal neutron detection using alpha/beta-gamma discrimination circuit

The manuscript is focused on possible usage of a simple alpha-beta gamma fly discriminating circuit applying a mixture of inorganic scintillation powders and Li-6 as a converter as a substitution of handheld neutron detector based on the He-3 isotope. Various mixtures of scintillators and Li-6 were tested from which the zinc sulfide activated by silver and lanthanum bromide oxide doped by cerium seemed to be the most promising scintillator for thermal neutron detection due to the biggest difference in magnitude of pulses created by alpha/gamma radiation. Furthermore, the influence of PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) optical carrier or additional scintillation matrix formed by polystyrene plastic scintillator on the signal under different types of radiation was investigated.