Measurement and Comparison of the Light Output of Ni-doped 6LiF/ZnS for Use in Neutron Multiplicity Counting

Conference · Thu Oct 06 04:00:00 EDT 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/NSSMIC.2015.7581840· OSTI ID:1334865

Behling, Richard S.; Bliss, Mary; Cowles, Christian C.; Kouzes, Richard T.; Lintereur, Azaree; Robinson, Sean M.; Siciliano, Edward R.; Stave, Sean C.; Wang, Zheming

Abstract–Alternatives to 3He for neutron detection have recently become attractive for safeguards applications. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is developing a neutron multiplicity counter that is based on 6LiF/ZnS. Some of the properties of this material, such as the scintillation light decay time, can be tuned by doping the material with a small amount of nickel. This doping affects other properties of the material, in particular the time dependence of the scintillation light output. To determine whether the nickel-doped or undoped 6LiF/ZnS material would better suit the neutron multiplicity counter system, a series of experiments compared the use of undoped 6LiF/ZnS and a Ni-doped variant using both small samples and full-scale detectors made using the two materials. Both materials were manufactured by Eljen Technology of Sweetwater, Texas. The Ni-doped variant produced less light than the undoped material and had a shorter decay time. For all choices of detection threshold above the electronic noise, the decrease in light output did not affect the detection efficiency of the system.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1334865
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-114810; DN2001000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English