Promising Neutron Detector with Anticoincidence Protection

The method of remote neutron and gamma spectrometry of bodies in the solar system (the Moon, Mars, and Mercury) has been used for several decades to estimate the nuclear composition of these objects and the hydrogen abundance in their subsurface layers. Proportional gas counters based on helium-3 (3He), which have the maximum efficiency of detecting thermal and epithermal neutrons, are used most often for measuring the low-energy neutron component. However, the data from LEND and FREND space experiments with large-volume and high-pressure helium counters revealed the noise contamination of lower channels of the neutron component due to the sensitivity of such counters to cosmic charged particles. The model of a promising neutron detector with anticoincidence protection, which is free from this drawback, is presented below.