The spallation neutrons were produced by the irradiation of Pb with 250 MeV protons. The Pb target was surrounded by water which was used to slow down the emitted neutrons. The moderated neutrons in the water bath were measured by using the resonance detectors of Au, Mn and In with Cd cover. According to the measured activities of the foils, the neutron flux at different resonance energy were deduced and the epithermal neutron spectra were proposed. Corresponding results calculated with the Monte Carlo code MCNPX were compared with the experimental data to check the validity of the code.
A low-power prototype of neutron amplifier, based on a 70 MeV, high current proton cyclotron being installed at LNL for the SPES RIB facility, was recently proposed within INFN-E project. This prototype uses a thick Beryllium converter to produce a fast neutron spectrum feeding a sub-critical reactor core. To complete the design of such facility the new measurement of neutron yield from a thick Beryllium target was performed at LNS. This measurement used liquid scintillator detectors to identify produced neutrons by Pulse Shape Discrimination and Time of Flight technique to measure neutron energy in the range 0.5-62 MeV. To extend the covered neutron energy range He3 detector was used to measure neutrons below 0.5 MeV. The obtained yields were normalized to the charge deposited by the proton beam on the metallic Beryllium target. These techniques allowed to achieve a wide angular coverage from 0 to 150 degrees and to explore almost complete neutron energy interval.
A self-adaptive differential evolution neutron spectrum unfolding algorithm (SDENUA) was established in this paper to unfold the neutron spectra obtained from a Water-pumping-injection Multi-layered concentric sphere Neutron Spectrometer (WMNS). Specifically, the neutron fluence bounds were estimated to accelerate the algorithm convergence, the minimum error between the optimal solution and the input neutron counts with relative uncertainties was limited to 10-6 to avoid useless calculation. Furthermore, the crossover probability and scaling factor were controlled self-adaptively. FLUKA Monte Carlo was used to simulate the readings of the WMNS under (1) a spectrum of Cf-252 and (2) its spectrum after being moderated, (3) a spectrum used for BNCT, and (4) a reactor spectrum, and the measured neutron counts unfolded by using the SDENUA. The uncertainties of the measured neutron count and the response matrix are considered in the SDENUA, which does not require complex parameter tuning and the priori default spectrum. Results indicate that the solutions of the SDENUA are more in agreement with the IAEA spectra than that of the MAXED and GRAVEL in UMG 3.1, and the errors of the final results calculated by SDENUA are under 12%. The established SDENUA has potential applications for unfolding spectra from the WMNS.
We discuss the possibility to build a neutron target for nuclear reaction studies in inverse kinematics utilizing a storage ring and radioactive ion beams. The proposed neutron target is a specially designed spallation target surrounded by a large moderator of heavy water (D$_2$O). We present the resulting neutron spectra and their properties as a target. We discuss possible realizations at different experimental facilities.
Pixel detectors are used in the innermost part of multi purpose experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and are therefore exposed to the highest fluences of ionising radiation, which in this part of the detectors consists mainly of charged pions. The radiation hardness of the detectors has thoroughly been tested up to the fluences expected at the LHC. In case of an LHC upgrade the fluence will be much higher and it is not yet clear up to which radii the present pixel technology can be used. In order to establish such a limit, pixel sensors of the size of one CMS pixel readout chip (PSI46V2.1) have been bump bonded and irradiated with positive pions up to 6E14 Neq/cm^2 at PSI and with protons up to 5E15 Neq/cm^2. The sensors were taken from production wafers of the CMS barrel pixel detector. They use n-type DOFZ material with a resistance of about 3.7kOhm cm and an n-side read out. As the performance of silicon sensors is limited by trapping, the response to a Sr-90 source was investigated. The highly energetic beta-particles represent a good approximation to minimum ionising particles. The bias dependence of the signal for a wide range of fluences will be presented.
Neutron energy spectrum from 120 GeV protons on a thick copper target was measured at the Meson Test Beam Facility (MTBF) at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The data allows for evaluation of neutron production process implemented in theoretical simulation codes. It also helps exploring the reasons for some disagreement between calculation results and shielding benchmark data taken at high energy accelerator facilities, since it is evaluated separately from neutron transport. The experiment was carried out using a 120 GeV proton beam of 3E5 protons/spill. Since the spill duration was 4 seconds, proton-induced events were counted pulse by pulse. The intensity was maintained using diffusers and collimators installed in the beam line to MTBF. The protons hit a copper block target the size of which is 5cm x 5cm x 60 cm long. The neutrons produced in the target were measured using NE213 liquid scintillator detectors, placed about 5.5 m away from the target at 30^{circ} and 5 m 90^{circ} with respect to the proton beam axis. The neutron energy was determined by time-of-flight technique using timing difference between the NE213 and a plastic scintillator located just before the target. Neutron detection efficiency of NE213 was determined on basis of experimental data from the high energy neutron beam line at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The neutron spectrum was compared with the results of multi-particle transport codes to validate the implemented theoretical models. The apparatus would be applied to future measurements to obtain a systematic data set for secondary particle production on various target materials.