Application of LiTaO3 pyroelectric crystal for pulsed neutron detection

The feasibility of a LiTaO3 pyroelectric crystal for pulsed neutron detection has been studied. The detector consists of a slice of electroded Z-cut LiTaO3 pyroelectric crystal, and no additional neutron converter is required owing to the Li contained in the crystal. The slight temperature increase caused by neutron radiation will lead to the release of bound charges and will give rise to a pyroelectric signal. The response of it has been studied both theoretically and experimentally. Our preliminary experiment on the CFBR-II reactor suggests that the LiTaO3 pyroelectric detector is promising for high intensity neutron- pulse measurement. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.