Thermal neutron detection with pyrolytic boron nitride

✍ Scribed by D.S. McGregor; T.C. Unruh; W.J. McNeil

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 291 KB
• Volume: 591
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0168-9002
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2008.03.002

✦ Synopsis

Commercially acquired samples of pyrolytic boron nitride (pBN) were tested as potential thermal neutron detectors. The pBN material has a high content of 10 B (19.9% natural abundance), allowing for the excitation of charge carriers from the 10 B(n,a) 7 Li reaction. Samples 5 mm  5 mm  1 mm thick with conductive contacts applied to both sides were operated as traditional planar semiconductor detectors. Being a solid, the material is attractive as a possible solid-state neutron detector. The devices were tested in a diffracted neutron beam from a nuclear reactor. Experimental results from the prototype devices are reported.