Experimental Study of Boron-coated Straws with a Neutron Source

Different types of high quality neutron detectors are proposed for China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS), phase one of which is going to be commissioned in 2018. Considering the issue of 3He supply, a detector module composed of 49 boron-coated straws (BCS) was developed by Proportional technologies Inc. (PTI). Each straw has a length of 1000 mm and diameter of 7.5 mm. Seven straws are packed compactly in a tube, and the tubes are organized in one row to form a detector module. The charge division method is used for longitudinal positioning. A specific readout system was utilized to output the signal and synchronously to encode each straw. The performances of this detector module were studied using a moderated 252Cf source at Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP). The spectrum result indicates good n-gamma discrimination. Benefitting from the tricky readout a longitudinal resolution of 6.1/pm 0.5 mm was obtained. The three dimensional positioning ability qualifies this BCS detector module to be a promising neutron scattering spectrometer detector.