Development of a microstrip-based neutron detector

A gas-filled microstrip detector for thermal neutrons has been built and successfully tested in our laboratory. The detector has an active area of 20 mm × 15 mm and consists of alternate anodes and cathodes of widths 12 μm and 300 μm respectively. The anode to cathode gap is 150 μm and the pitch is 612 μm. A high resistance, meandering type horizontal strip connects the anodes at one end and aids in position sensing by charge division method. The detector is tested with gas mixtures³He+Kr (1: 2) and³He+CF₄ (2:1) at pressure of 3 atmospheres and using a Pu-Be neutron source. The pulse height spectrum shows energy resolution of ∼8% (FWHM) for the 764 keV peak at anode voltage of 525 V for³He+Kr and ∼15% at anode voltage of 800 V for³He+CF₄. Gas gains up to 6.3 × 103 and 3.6 × 103 are obtained respectively with these gas mixtures. The overall efficiency of the detector along the sensitive length is tested by exposing the active area to neutrons and recording the position spectrum. The detector shows fairly uniform efficiency (∼45%) over the active length.     

Two-dimensional thermal neutron detector

A two-dimensional thermal neutron detector for neutron diffraction experiments has been developed and designed at the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. The detector is based on a multiwire proportional chamber with cathode-strip delay line readout. The detector aperture is 170 × 300 mm² and the anode wire spacing is 4 mm. The chamber is filled with a 1.5 atm ³He + 2 atm CF₄ gas mixture. To conserve high purity of the gas mixture, all electrodes are made of quartz glass. The spatial resolution of the detector is 2.5 mm and the detection efficiency is 60% for 9 Å neutrons.     

Generation of uniform atmospheric pressure argon glow plasma by dielectric barrier discharge

In this paper, atmospheric pressure glow discharges (APGD) in argon generated in parallel plate dielectric barrier discharge system is investigated by means of electrical and optical measurements. Using a high voltage (0–20 kV) power supply operating at 10–30 kHz, homogeneous and steady APGD has been observed between the electrodes with gap spacing from 0.5 mm to 2 mm and with a dielectric barrier of thickness 2 mm while argon gas is fed at a controlled flow rate of 1 l/min. The electron temperature and electron density of the plasma are determined by means of optical emission spectroscopy. Our results show that the electron density of the discharge obtained is of the order of 10¹⁶ cm^???3 while the electron temperature is estimated to be 0.65 eV. The important result is that electron density determined from the line intensity ratio method and stark broadening method are in very good agreement. The Lissajous figure is used to estimate the energy deposited to the glow discharge. It is found that the energy deposited to the discharge is in the range of 20 to 25 μJ with a discharge voltage of 1.85 kV. The energy deposited to the discharge is observed to be higher at smaller gas spacing. The glow discharge plasma is tested to be effective in reducing the hydrophobicity of polyethylene film significantly.     

Performance studies on high pressure 1-D position sensitive neutron detectors

The powder diffractometer and Hi-Q diffractometer at Dhruva reactor make use of five identical 1-D position sensitive detectors (PSDs) to scan scattering angles in the range 3° to 140°. In order to improve the overall throughput of these spectrometers, it is planned to install a bank of 15 high-efficiency and high-resolution PSDs arranged in three layers with five PSDs in each layer. With each high pressure PSD (³He 10 bar + Kr 2 bar) showing the efficiency gain of 1.8 at 1.2 Å, detector bank is expected to show overall gain of 5.5 times the present detection efficiency and reduction in data collection time by equivalent factor. The 1-D PSDs are developed in batches of five, and are characterized so that all PSDs operate at uniform parameters such as position resolution, uniformity of efficiency and linearity of response. Position spectrum indicates the differential position resolution to be ～1 mm and integral position resolution to be 3–4 mm. Broadening of position spectrum at the extreme end of sensitive length of PSD is analysed using fine shift of the beam. Dependence of position resolution and dynamic range of output pulse on the input impedance of pre-amplifier is also presented.     

Development of new CdZnTe detectors for room‐temperature high‐flux radiation measurements

Recently, CdZnTe (CZT) detectors have been widely proposed and developed for room‐temperature X‐ray spectroscopy even at high fluxes, and great efforts have been made on both the device and the crystal growth technologies. In this work, the performance of new travelling‐heater‐method (THM)‐grown CZT detectors, recently developed at IMEM‐CNR Parma, Italy, is presented. Thick planar detectors (3 mm thick) with gold electroless contacts were realised, with a planar cathode covering the detector surface (4.1 mm × 4.1 mm) and a central anode (2 mm × 2 mm) surrounded by a guard‐ring electrode. The detectors, characterized by low leakage currents at room temperature (4.7 nA cm^?2 at 1000 V cm^?1), allow good room‐temperature operation even at high bias voltages (>7000 V cm^?1). At low rates (200 counts s^?1), the detectors exhibit an energy resolution around 4% FWHM at 59.5 keV (²⁴¹Am source) up to 2200 V, by using commercial front‐end electronics (A250F/NF charge‐sensitive preamplifier, Amptek, USA; nominal equivalent noise charge of 100 electrons RMS). At high rates (1 Mcounts s^?1), the detectors, coupled to a custom‐designed digital pulse processing electronics developed at DiFC of University of Palermo (Italy), show low spectroscopic degradations: energy resolution values of 8% and 9.7% FWHM at 59.5 keV (²⁴¹Am source) were measured, with throughputs of 0.4% and 60% at 1 Mcounts s^?1, respectively. An energy resolution of 7.7% FWHM at 122.1 keV (⁵⁷Co source) with a throughput of 50% was obtained at 550 kcounts s^?1 (energy resolution of 3.2% at low rate). These activities are in the framework of an Italian research project on the development of energy‐resolved photon‐counting systems for high‐flux energy‐resolved X‐ray imaging.     

Influence of the cathode and anode jets on the properties of a high-current electric arc

A study is made of the effects related to the formation of electrode jets in discharges in hydrogen and air at a current of 10⁵–10⁶ A, a current growth rate of 10¹⁰ A/s, an initial pressure of 0.1–4.0 MPa, and a discharge gap length of 5–40 mm. After secondary breakdown, jets are observed in a semitransparent discharge channel expanding with a velocity of (4–7)×10² m/s. The formation of shock waves in the interaction of the jets with the ambient gas and the opposite electrode is observed by the shadowgraphy method. Seventy microseconds after the beginning of the discharge, the pressure of the metal vapor plasma near the end of the tungsten cathode amounts to 177 MPa. The brightness temperature in this case is T=59×10³ K, the average ion charge number is [`(m)] = 3.1\overline m = 3.1 , and the metal vapor density is n=5.3×10<sup>19</sup> cm<sup>−3</sup>. After 90 μs, the average ion charge number and the metal vapor density near the anode end are [`(m)] = 2.6\overline m = 2.6 and n=7.4×10¹⁹ cm⁻³, respectively. Based on the experimental data, possible reasons for the abnormally high values of the total voltage drop near the electrodes (up to ∼1 kV) are discussed.     

用于脉冲星导航的X射线光子计数探测器研究

研制了用于脉冲星导航的X射线光子计数探测器原理样机, 该探测器主要由对X射线灵敏度较高的CsI光电阴极、微通道板电子倍增器和收集阳极组成. 对X射线光子计数探测器灵敏度、时间分辨率和整个系统的死时间进行了测试, 实验结果表明该探测器的灵敏度在5 keV时可达5.2× 10³ A/W, 时间分辨率可达到1.1 ns, 系统整体的死时间为100 ns. 关键词： 脉冲星导航 光子计数探测器 灵敏度 时间分辨率     

Study of resolution of the PANDA GEM detector with Garfield

The forward GEM tracker of the P?ANDA detector at the future FAIR facility will track the particles produced in antiproton-proton annihilations and emitted in the polar angle range 5° –22°. Position resolution at the level of 100 μ m and good time resolution are critical to work under luminosities up to 2×10³² c m ^?2 s ^?1. The simulations performed with Garfield program compared several detector layouts and determined the optimal granularity of readout electronics. The time resolution for two possible gas mixtures was also estimated.     

Probe measurements in a discharge with liquid nonmetallic electrodes in air at atmospheric pressure

Discharges with liquid nonmetallic electrodes of much interest for applications are investigated. It is found that a dc discharge between two streams of tap water in air at atmospheric pressure is stable at a currentof 40≤I≤100 mA. The discharge exists in the diffuse (volume) form with a relatively low current density (∼0.2 A/cm²) and a high (above one kilovolt) voltage drop across the air gap (∼1 cm) between the water electrodes. The current density and voltage depend only slightly on the discharge current. Probe measurements show that three regions can be distinguished in the discharge: two electrode regions (1–2 mm in length) and a discharge column with a constant electric field of ≈0.8 kV/cm (i.e., E/N≈20 Td, because the gas in the discharge is heated up to 1500–2000 K). The average electric field strength near the electrodes is E≈2–3×10³ V/cm (E/N≈60–80 Td). The charged particle density in the column is n ∼ 10¹² cm⁻³. The probe measurements of n agree with the previous microwave absorption measurements. The water vapor concentration in the column is also estimated from probe measurements.     

Development of exploding wire ion source for intense pulsed heavy ion beam accelerator

A Novel exploding wire type ion source device is proposed as a metallic ion source of intense pulsed heavy ion beam (PHIB) accelerator. In the device, multiple shot operations are realized without breaking the vacuum. The basic characteristics of the device are evaluated experimentally with an aluminum wire of diameter 0.2 mm and length 25 mm. A capacitor bank of capacitance 3 μF and a charging voltage of 30 kV was used, and the wire was successfully exploded by a discharge current of 15 kA with a rise time of 5.3 μs. Plasma flux of ion current density around 70 A/cm² was obtained at 150 mm downstream from the device. The drift velocity of ions evaluated by a time-of-flight method was 2.7×10⁴ m/ s, which corresponds to the kinetic energy of 100 eV for aluminum ions. From the measurement of the ion current density distribution, the ion flow is found to be concentrated toward the direction where the ion acceleration gap is placed. From the experiment, the device is found to be acceptable for applying the PHIB accelerator.     

Photo-emission studies from Zn cathodes under plasma phase

In this paper, we report investigations of the electron emission from pure Zn cathodes irradiated by UV laser pulses of 23 ns (full-width at half-maximum) at a wavelength of 248 nm (5 eV). The metal cathodes were tested in a vacuum photodiode chamber at 10^?5 Pa. They were irradiated at normal incidence and the anode–cathode distance was set at 3 mm. The maximum applied accelerating voltage was 18 kV, limited by the electrical breakdown of the photodiode gap. Under the above experimental conditions, a maximum applied electric field of 6 MV/m resulted. In the saturation regime, the measured quantum efficiency value increased with the accelerating voltage due to the plasma formation. The highest output current was achieved with 14 mJ laser energy, 18 kV accelerating voltage and its value was 12 A, corresponding to a global quantum efficiency (GQE) approximately of 1×10^?4. The temporal quantum efficiency was 1.0×10^?4 at the laser pulse onset time and 1.4×10^?4 at the pulse tail. We calculated the target temperature at the maximum laser energy. Its value allowed us to obtain output pulses of the same laser temporal profile. Tests performed with a lower laser photon energy (4.02 eV) demonstrated a GQE of two orders of magnitude lower.     

Application of a hybrid pixel detector to powder diffraction

Results obtained using a hybrid pixel photon‐counting detector in powder diffraction experiments are presented. The detector works at room temperature and its dynamic response ranges from 0.01 photons pixel^?1 s^?1 up to 10⁶ photons pixel^?1 s^?1. The pixel sizes are 0.33 mm × 0.33 mm for a total area of 68 mm × 68 mm. On recording high‐resolution diffraction patterns of powders, a reduction of the experimental time by more than a factor of 20 is obtained without loss of data quality. The example of an X‐zeolite shows that such detectors can be used for very demanding anomalous experiments. In situ experiments of quenching liquid oxides show that frames of 0.01 s can be achieved for studying such processes.     

Breakdown of gas gaps in a nonuniform electric field at a subnanosecond voltage pulse rise time

The influence of the nitrogen pressure on the breakdown voltage in a nonuniform electric field is studied. Voltage pulses with nanosecond and subnanosecond rise times are applied to the gas gap. Simultaneously with the application of voltage pulses, supershort avalanche electron beam pulses are observed behind a foil anode. It is found that, when a runaway electron beam is generated and voltage pulses have a subnano-second rise time, the breakdown voltage rises as the nitrogen pressure decreases from 9 × 10⁴ to 1 × 10² Pa. Experimental data are in good agreement with pulsed breakdown analytical curves.     

Repetitive low-pressure volume discharge induced by attachment instability in an Ar/Cl<Subscript>2</Subscript> mixture

Ignition conditions and the characteristics of a repetitive volume discharge with a spherical anode and plane cathode are investigated. The discharge was ignited in Ar/Cl₂ mixtures (P≤2.0 kPa) used in excimer halogen lamps operating on the ArCl (B-X) 175-nm, Cl₂(D′-A′) 257-nm, and Cl ₂ ^** 195-to 200-nm molecular bands. At an interelectrode distance of 3 cm and a dc anode voltage of U _ch ≤1 kV, a stable repetitive pulsed discharge with a repetition rate of 1–50 kHz was ignited in chlorine or (0.1–2.0)/(0.04–0.12)-kPa Ar/Cl₂ mixtures. The development of attachment instability in the discharge plasma, in which the processes of the formation, decay, and diffusion of the Cl ₂ ⁻ and Cl⁻ negative ions play an important role, leads to the formation of a solitary pearlike plasma domain with an average diameter of 0.2–3.5 cm.     

High resolution ethylene absorption spectrum between 6035 and 6210 cm-1

A two-channel photo-acoustic spectrometer (PA spectrometer) with a near infrared diode laser was used for taking measurements of a high resolution ethylene absorption spectrum. A semiconductor TEC-100 laser with an outer resonator generates a continuous single-frequency radiation in the range 6030–6300 cm^-1. A newly designed model of photo-acoustic detector (PAD) in the form of a ring type resonator provides for measurement of weak absorption cross-section equal to 4×10^-23 cm²/mol at a laser radiation power of 3 mW. The PAD threshold sensitivity is 2×10^-9 cm^-1 Hz^-1/2 W, when the signal to noise ratio equals to 1. The ethylene absorption spectrum within the range 6035–6210 cm^-1 was measured for the first time with a spectral resolution of 10 MHz. The reported line centre positions have an uncertainty of ± 0.0005 cm^-1. The precise measurements of ethylene absorption cross-sections were carried out using the mixture of high purity ethylene and broadening gas (nitrogen) at the mixture ratio 1:50–1:200. Measurements were carried out at a mixture pressure of about 4.2 kPa. PACS 42.62.Fi; 42.55.Px     

Prototype of a large neutron detector based on MWPC

A prototype of large-area position sensitive neutron detector was designed and constructed according to the requirements of the Small-Angle Scattering spectrometer of China Spallation Neutron Source(CSNS).The detector was based on the 3He neutron convertor and MWPC with an effective area of 650 mm×650 mm.A prototype was completed and tested with 55Fe X-ray.The high-pressure vessel was designed and constructed with high-strength aluminum alloy.A position resolution of about 4.6mm×2.3 mm(FWHM)and efficiency65%for neutrons with wavelength of 1.8?was determined after the operational gas filled.     

Fabrication and characterization of two-dimensional pin-cushion position sensitive detectors

In this paper, the fabrication and testing results of a two-dimensional pin-cushion position sensitive detector (PSD) are presented. The obtained pin-cushion PSD with an 8 × 8 mm2 effective area presents a maximum spectral response of 0.5 mA/mW at 850-nm wavelength, a 12-nA dark current at 5-V reverse voltage, a reverse breakdown voltage of 50 V, a nonlinearity of 2.175%, and a spatial resolution of 10 μm. The spatial resolution is relatively low and the slight pin-cushion concave distortion is generated due to the incompletely satisfied relationship between sheet resistivity of the anode and the resistance per unit length.     

Neutron detector array at IUAC: Design features and instrumentation developments

The characteristics and performance of the newly commissioned neutron detector array at IUAC are described. The array consists of 100 BC501 liquid scintillators mounted in a semi-spherical geometry and are kept at a distance of 175 cm from the reaction point. Each detector is a 5^″ × 5^″ cylindrical cell coupled to 5^″ diameter photomultiplier tube (PMT). Signal processing is realized using custom-designed home-made integrated electronic modules which perform neutron – gamma discrimination using zero cross timing and time-of-flight (TOF) technique. Compact custom built high voltage power supply developed using DC–DC converters are used to bias the detector. The neutrons are recorded in coincidence with fission fragments which are detected using multi-wire proportional counters mounted inside a 1 m diameter SS target chamber. The detectors and electronics have been tested off-line using radioactive sources and the results are presented.     

四通道X射线MCP行波选通分幅相机

简述了MCP行波选通分幅相机的工作原理及技术指标,报道了最新研制的四通道行波选通分幅相机的研制结果及使用情况,相机可接连拍摄12幅图象,每幅象的曝光时间为60至100ps、空间分辨率15lp/mm时调制度10％,观测时间在几百皮秒至几纳秒内可调.在星光装置上的使用表明相机的实用性强、抗干扰能力高,并在国内首次较全面地测量了各种靶型的时间分辨分幅结果.     

Characteristics of the Na/beta-alumina/Na cell as a sodium vapor pressure sensor

The EMF and voltage-current characteristics for a galvanic cell with the configuration Na vapor (P₁)/sodium beta-alumina/Na vapor (P₂) were studied. It was verified that the EMF followed the Nernst relation over a wide pressure range. For example, when P₁ = 2 × 10^-2 mm Hg and beta-alumina temperature = 340°C, the measured EMF agreed with the calculated value in P₂ range from 10^-5 to 10^-2 mm Hg. At lower pressure range, the measured EMF showed a negative deviation. Coexisting argon gas did not influence the cell EMF characteristic. In an atmosphere containing oxygen, the measured EMF was very high at first. Then it decreased and finally approached a value which agreed with the Nernst equation after several hours. At low beta-alumina temperatures, current saturation was observed in the voltage versus current relation with the anode on the P₂ side. Although the sodium pressure could be determined from saturating current measurement, the measurable pressure range was narrower than that for EMF measurement. At high beta-alumina temperature, current saturation was not clear. Values of 6 × 10^-6 (Ω cm)^-1 for the electron conductivity and 6 × 10^-10 (Ω cm)^-1 for the hole conductivity at 340° were obtained for beta-alumina from the voltage-current characteristics at low sodium pressure.