Front-End Design for SiPM-Based Monolithic Neutron Double Scatter Imagers

Journal Article · Sat May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Sensors

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093553· OSTI ID:1877164

Cates, Joshua W. ^[1]; Steele, John ^[2]; Balajthy, Jon ^[2]; Negut, Victor ^[1]; Hausladen, Paul ^[3]; Ziock, Klaus ^[3]; Brubaker, Erik ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Neutron double scatter imaging exploits the kinematics of neutron elastic scattering to enable emission imaging of neutron sources. Due to the relatively low coincidence detection efficiency of fast neutrons in organic scintillator arrays, imaging efficiency for double scatter cameras can also be low. One method to realize significant gains in neutron coincidence detection efficiency is to develop neutron double scatter detectors which employ monolithic blocks of organic scintillator, instrumented with photosensor arrays on multiple faces to enable 3D position and multi-interaction time pickoff. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have several advantageous characteristics for this approach, including high photon detection efficiency (PDE), good single photon time resolution (SPTR), high gain that translates to single photon counting capabilities, and ability to be tiled into large arrays with high packing fraction and photosensitive area fill factor. However, they also have a tradeoff in high uncorrelated and correlated noise rates (dark counts from thermionic emissions and optical photon crosstalk generated during avalanche) which may complicate event positioning algorithms. We have evaluated the noise characteristics and SPTR of Hamamatsu S13360-6075 SiPMs with low noise, fast electronic readout for integration into a monolithic neutron scatter camera prototype. The sensors and electronic readout were implemented in a small-scale prototype detector in order to estimate expected noise performance for a monolithic neutron scatter camera and perform proof-of-concept measurements for scintillation photon counting and three-dimensional event positioning.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; NA0003525
• OSTI ID: 1877164
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1880986
• Report Number(s): SAND2022-9374J; 708149
• Journal Information: Sensors, Journal Name: Sensors Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 22; ISSN 1424-8220
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
monolithic scintillation detector
neutron double scatter imaging
neutron imaging
silicon photomultipliers