Study on detecting spatial distribution of neutrons and gamma rays using a multi-imaging plate system

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Physics
• Radiation Detection
• Materials Science

Background:

• Accurate measurement of neutron and gamma ray spatial distributions is crucial in various scientific and industrial applications.
• Imaging plates offer a sensitive detection method, but require specific converters to differentiate between radiation types.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the requirements for converters that enhance specific radiation components (neutrons and gamma rays) for separate detection using imaging plates.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of different converter materials, including epoxy resin and graphite, in conjunction with the PHITS (Particle and Heavy Ion Transport Simulation) code.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the PHITS code to simulate and analyze the interactions of neutrons and gamma rays with various converter materials.
• Investigated the use of epoxy resin, both pure and doped with Boron-10 ((10)B), and graphite as potential converters.

Main Results:

• Enhancing fast neutrons via recoil protons from pure epoxy resin was found to be ineffective due to the imaging plate's high sensitivity to gamma rays.
• Epoxy resin doped with (10)B demonstrated potential as a converter for detecting thermal and epithermal neutrons.
• Graphite was identified as a suitable converter material for the selective detection of gamma rays.

Conclusions:

• The choice of converter material is critical for achieving separate spatial distribution measurements of neutrons and gamma rays with imaging plates.
• Boron-10 doped epoxy resin and graphite show promise as specialized converters for distinct radiation detection applications.