Radiator effect on plastic nuclear track detectors for high-energy neutrons

The effect of radiators supplying charged particles to plastic nuclear track detectors has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically in order to apply them to personal dosimeters for high-energy neutrons. Performance of four types of radiator materials, CH₂, CD₂ (deuterized hydrocarbon), LiF (lithium fluoride) and C (graphite), was checked in a quasi-monoenergetic neutron field generated by p-Li reactions. The efficiency has been numerically calculated based on a model with a special attention to the angular dependence of cross sections and data of characteristic response to light ions. The effect of respective radiator candidates has been evaluated as a function of the neutron energy. A two-layer radiator has also been proposed to adjust the energy dependence of the relative sensitivity to conversion factor for dose-equivalent.