Development of novel neutron and gamma-ray scintillators: Cesium lithium yttrium chloride and cesium bromide.

摘要

Two promising inorganic scintillators, Cs2LiYCl 6 (CLYC) and CeBr3, important for both basic and applied nuclear science, have been developed in this work. CLYC is a dual neutron/γ scintillator with excellent pulse-shape discrimination and good energy resolution. Whereas thermal neutron detection is accomplished using the 6Li(n,α) reaction, direct fast neutron spectroscopy was discovered to be due to the 35Cl(n,p) reaction. Thermal neutron measurements were carried out using a moderated PuBe source and thermal beams from the UMass Research Reactor neutron radiography port. A study of the fast neutron response in CLYC was performed at the UMass Lowell Van de Graaff using mono-energetic neutron beams between 0.8 and 2.5 MeV. Simulations of the fast/thermal neutron response and efficiency were performed with the Monte Carlo code MCNPX (v2.7.0). Experiments with CeBr3, a fast γ-ray detector with high light output, focused on its excellent timing resolution (≤100 ps for 1 cm x 1 cm detector). A pair of CeBr3 detectors were used for direct measurements of nanosecond and sub-nanosecond isomers in 152Sm and 177Hf, using the delayed coincidence technique, to demonstrate its usefulness in nuclear physics measurements. The position resolution of a positron emitting source placed between detectors was evaluated to assess the potential use of CeBr3 as a time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF PET) detector. Additional characterizations were performed for both CLYC and CeBr3, including energy resolution, timing resolution, efficiency, and pulse-shape analysis.