TY - GEN
T1 - Performance of a neutron imaging detector based on the μpIC micro-pixel gaseous chamber
AU - Parker, Joseph D.
AU - Harada, Masahide
AU - Hattori, Kaori
AU - Iwaki, Satoru
AU - Kabuki, Shigeto
AU - Kishimoto, Yuji
AU - Kubo, Hidetoshi
AU - Kurosawa, Shunsuke
AU - Miuchi, Kentaro
AU - Nishimura, Hironobu
AU - Oku, Takayuki
AU - Sawano, Tatsuya
AU - Shinohara, Takenao
AU - Suzuki, Jun Ichi
AU - Tanimori, Toru
AU - Ueno, Kazuki
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - A new detector employing a time projection chamber built on the micro-pixel gaseous chamber (PIC) and an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array)-based data acquisition system has been developed as a thermal-neutron imaging detector for small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and neutron radiography. A small amount of 3He added to the gas mixture is used as the neutron absorber, giving a detection efficiency for thermal neutrons of up to 30%. An improved FPGA program permits the simultaneous measurement of the track length and energy deposition for the resulting proton-triton pairs, allowing the separation of the proton and triton for improved position resolution. Here we report the preliminary results of several test experiments performed at the NOBORU beam line at the J-PARC Spallation Neutron Source in November 2009 and June 2010. During these experiments, we observed time-averaged data rates up to 4.5 MHz, and with a time resolution on the order of 1 s per neutron event, we were able to cleanly separate the individual neutron pulses and determine neutron energy by time-of-flight. Using images of cadmium test charts, the position resolution of our detector was estimated as 315 15m (preliminary). We also successfully observed resonance absorption in various metals, SANS diffraction from spherical SiO2 nanoparticles, and Bragg edge transmission of a welded steel plate.
AB - A new detector employing a time projection chamber built on the micro-pixel gaseous chamber (PIC) and an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array)-based data acquisition system has been developed as a thermal-neutron imaging detector for small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and neutron radiography. A small amount of 3He added to the gas mixture is used as the neutron absorber, giving a detection efficiency for thermal neutrons of up to 30%. An improved FPGA program permits the simultaneous measurement of the track length and energy deposition for the resulting proton-triton pairs, allowing the separation of the proton and triton for improved position resolution. Here we report the preliminary results of several test experiments performed at the NOBORU beam line at the J-PARC Spallation Neutron Source in November 2009 and June 2010. During these experiments, we observed time-averaged data rates up to 4.5 MHz, and with a time resolution on the order of 1 s per neutron event, we were able to cleanly separate the individual neutron pulses and determine neutron energy by time-of-flight. Using images of cadmium test charts, the position resolution of our detector was estimated as 315 15m (preliminary). We also successfully observed resonance absorption in various metals, SANS diffraction from spherical SiO2 nanoparticles, and Bragg edge transmission of a welded steel plate.
KW - Field programmable gate arrays
KW - Nuclear imaging
KW - Radiation detectors
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U2 - 10.1109/NSSMIC.2010.5873767
DO - 10.1109/NSSMIC.2010.5873767
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:79960321718
SN - 9781424491063
T3 - IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record
SP - 291
EP - 297
BT - IEEE Nuclear Science Symposuim and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2010
T2 - 2010 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2010 and 17th International Workshop on Room-Temperature Semiconductor X-ray and Gamma-ray Detectors, RTSD 2010
Y2 - 30 October 2010 through 6 November 2010
ER -