High-sensitivity scintillating-fiber imaging detector for high-energy neutrons
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-473, Livermore, California 94551-5508 (United States)
- Physics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States)
We have created a detector to image the neutrons emitted by imploded inertial-confinement fusion targets. The 14 MeV neutrons, which are produced by deuterium--tritium fusion events in the target, pass through an aperture to create an image on the detector. The neutron radiation is converted to blue light (430 nm) with a 20 cm{sup 2} array of plastic scintillating fibers. Each fiber is 10 cm long with a 1 mm{sup 2} cross section; approximately 35 000 fibers make up the array. The resulting blue-light image is reduced in size and amplified by a sequence of fiber-optic tapers and image intensifiers, then acquired by a charge-coupled device camera. The fiber-optic readout system was tested separately for overall throughput and spatial resolution; the throughput was 0.22 electrons/photon, and the resolution was 0.8 mm. We also characterized the overall efficiency of the detector using the DT-fusion neutrons emitted by inertial confinement targets; the measured value was 14 electrons/pixel/neutron. Several neutron images of laser-fusion targets have been obtained with the detector. We describe the detector, present characterization results, and give examples of the neutron images. {copyright} {ital 1995} {ital American} {ital Institute} {ital of} {ital Physics}.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 240476
- Journal Information:
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 66, Issue 10; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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