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| Home > Publications database > Assessment of performance of silicon photomultipliers in scintillator based neutron detectors |
| Home > Publications database > Assessment of performance of silicon photomultipliers in scintillator based neutron detectors |
| Poster (After Call) | FZJ-2019-06602 |
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2018
Abstract: Scintillator based neutron detectors are a prominent alternative to 3He based gas detectors traditionally used for detecting cold and thermal neutrons. Over the last years, photomultiplier tubes (PMT) have been the predominantly used photodetector technology in position sensitive neutron detectors [1,2], built following the Anger camera [3] principle. However, the high voltage requirements (of some kV), gain fluctuations and sensitivity to magnetic field, have triggered the search for alternative photodetectors. One possible solution is using solid-state detectors capable of single-photon counting at even shorter response times, such as silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) or single photon avalanche photodiode (SPAD) arrays, additionally offering operability in presence of magnetic field, relative compactness, much lower biasing voltages (between 25V and 70V), as well as relatively lower production costs. SiPM technology has been largely ignored due to its vulnerability to radiation damage caused by exposure to neutrons, which may lead to the increase of dark current and the decrease in their photon detection efficiency (PDE). In order to assess the possibility of using SiPMs for this application, we irradiated one digital and two different analog SiPM arrays with cold neutrons of 5Å wavelength and a dose up to 6E12 n/cm2 at the KWS-1 instrument of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Garching, Germany. The purpose of the investigation [4, 5] was to analyse the effect of the radiation induced damage in the SiPMs. The figure of merit quantified for this work was dark signal and photon detection efficiency (PDE) of the SiPM arrays, before and after irradiation with cold neutrons. The results of the study concluded that this technology is sufficiently tolerant to radiation damage with an expected lifetime of 10 years and acceptable PDE performance, which provides a fruitful insight for their acceptability in this application.
Keyword(s): Engineering, Industrial Materials and Processing (1st) ; Instrument and Method Development (2nd)
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