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Tagging fast neutrons from a 252Cf fission-fragment source
J Scherzinger1, R Al Jebali2, J R M Annand2
1Division of Nuclear Physics, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden; Detector Group, European Spallation Source ESS AB, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Abstract:
Coincidence and time-of-flight measurement techniques are employed to tag fission neutrons emitted from a 252Cf source sealed on one side with a very thin layer of Au. The source is positioned within a gaseous 4He scintillator detector. Together with α particles, both light and heavy fission fragments pass through the thin layer of Au and are detected. The fragments enable the corresponding fission neutrons, which are detected in a NE-213 liquid-scintillator detector, to be tagged. The resulting continuous polychromatic beam of tagged neutrons has an energy dependence that agrees qualitatively with expectations. We anticipate that this technique will provide a cost-effective means for the characterization of neutron-detector efficiency in the energy range 1-6MeV.
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