Performance tests of boron-coated straw detectors with thermal and cold neutron beams

摘要

Prototypes of in-house developed boron-coated straw (BCS) detectors have been tested in the thermal and cold neutron energy ranges. Their neutron detection performance has been benchmarked against the industry standard (detector tubes filled with ~3He gas). The tests show that the BCS detectors perform near their theoretical limit regarding the detection efficiency, which is adequate for scientific instruments in the cold neutron energy range. The BCS detectors perform on par with ~3He tubes in terms of signal to noise and timing resolution, and superior regarding longitudinal spatial resolution.