Development and Characterization of a Position Sensitive Neutron Scintillation Detector using Digital Silicon Photomultipliers

Due to the world-wide shortage of He-3, alternative, cost effective detection methods for neutron radiation are needed. A popular possibility is the use of neutron scintillators like Li-6-glass in combination with a photodetector. Due to their vulnerability to neutron irradiation, silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) have not been widely used for this kind of neutron detectors. However, in small angle neutron scattering (SANS) applications, lifetimes of well over 10 years can be expected for this technology in case of typical neutron doses, and thus the advantages of SiPM over conventional photomultipliers outweigh the risk of system failure. We developed a position sensitive neutron scintillation detector demonstrator based on a Li-6-glass scintillator screen and a digital SiPM array as photodetector. In this work we present the detector design, as well as validation measurements carried out using a cold neutron source. We further show the algorithm used for position reconstruction of neutron events as well as results concerning the spatial resolution of the demonstrator.