Discrimination of Fast and Thermal Neutrons Using a Novel Phoswich Detector of LaCl3 and LiI:Eu Single Crystal Scintillators

A novel phoswich detector was set up by employing LaCl3 + LiI:Eu single crystal scintillators and was characterized in detail for its performance with Am-Be, D-D, and D-T neutron sources. LaCl3 crystal shows transparency to the scintillation emission of LiI:Eu for light collection to photo multiplier tube (PMT). Thermal and fast neutrons were successfully discriminated by pulse shape discrimination (PSD) with high value of figure of merit of 5.5 due to significant difference of their scintillation kinetics.

Automated summary

A novel phoswich detector was constructed using LaCl3 + LiI:Eu single crystal scintillators and evaluated for its performance with Am-Be, D-D, and D-T neutron sources. The LaCl3 crystal was found to be transparent to the scintillation emission of LiI:Eu, allowing for efficient light collection for the photo multiplier tube (PMT). Pulse shape discrimination (PSD) was employed to successfully distinguish thermal and fast neutrons, achieving a high figure of merit value of 5.5 due to the significant difference in their scintillation kinetics.