Advanced passive detectors for neutron dosimetry and spectrometry

Different neutron detectors have been developed in the past which exploit electrical and electrochemical processes in plastic foils and thin-film capacitors (namely metal-oxide-silicon devices) to trigger avalanche processes, which greatly facilitate the detection of neutron-induced charged particles. These detectors are: (i) spark-replica counter of neutron-induced fission-fragment holes in plastic films, thin-film breakdown counter of neutron-induced fission fragments, and electrochemically etched detectors of neutron-induced recoils in plastic foils. The major shortcomings of damage-track detectors for the measurement of low neutron fluencies, such as those of cosmic ray neutrons at civil aviation altitudes, are their large and unpredictable background and their small signal-to-noise ratio. These shortcomings have been overcome respectively by using long exposure times and large detector areas and counting coincidence-track events on matched pairs of detectors even for a few-micron-long tracks such as those of neutron recoils. The responses of all these detectors have been analysed both with neutrons with energy up to approximately 200 MeV and protons up to tens of gigaelectron volts. Applications of these detectors for the cosmic ray neutron dosimetry and/or spectrometry will be mentioned.