56Fe capture cross section experiments at the RPI LINAC Center

A new array of C 6 D 6 detectors installed at the RPI LINAC Center has enabled the capability to measure neutron capture cross sections above the 847 keV inelastic scattering threshold of 56 Fe through the use of digital post-processing filters and pulse-integral discriminators, without sacrificing the statistical quality of data at lower incident neutron energies where such filtering is unnecessary. The C 6 D 6 detectors were used to perform time-of-flight capture cross section measurements on a sample 99.87% enriched iron-56. The total-energy method, combined with the pulse height weighting technique, were then applied to the raw data to determine the energy-dependent capture yield. Above the inelastic threshold, the data were analyzed with a pulse-integral filter to reveal the capture signal, extending the the full data set to 2 MeV.