TY - JOUR
T1 - Generalized method for the optimization of pulse shape discrimination parameters
AU - Zhou, J.
AU - Abdulaziz, A.
AU - Altmann, Y.
AU - Di Fulvio, A.
N1 - This work was funded in part by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) , United States Faculty Development Grant 31310019M0011 and in part by the Royal Academy of Engineering under the Research Fellowship scheme RF201617/16/31 . This material is based upon work supported in part by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration through the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium under Award Number DE-NA0003996 .
PY - 2023/5
Y1 - 2023/5
N2 - Organic scintillators exhibit fast timing, high detection efficiency for fast neutrons and pulse shape discrimination (PSD) capability. PSD is essential in mixed radiation fields, where different types of radiation need to be detected and discriminated. In neutron measurements for nuclear security and non proliferation effective PSD is crucial, because a weak neutron signature needs to be detected in the presence of a strong gamma-ray background. The most commonly used deterministic PSD technique is charge integration (CI). This method requires the optimization of specific parameters to obtain the best gamma-neutron separation. These parameters depend on the scintillating material and light readout device and typically require a lengthy optimization process and a calibration reference measurement with a mixed source. In this paper, we propose a new method based on the scintillation fluorescence physics that enables to find the optimum PSD integration gates using only a gamma-ray emitter. We demonstrate our method using three organic scintillation detectors: deuterated trans-stilbene, small-molecule organic glass, and EJ-309. In all the investigated cases, our method allowed finding the optimum PSD CI parameters without the need of iterative optimization.
AB - Organic scintillators exhibit fast timing, high detection efficiency for fast neutrons and pulse shape discrimination (PSD) capability. PSD is essential in mixed radiation fields, where different types of radiation need to be detected and discriminated. In neutron measurements for nuclear security and non proliferation effective PSD is crucial, because a weak neutron signature needs to be detected in the presence of a strong gamma-ray background. The most commonly used deterministic PSD technique is charge integration (CI). This method requires the optimization of specific parameters to obtain the best gamma-neutron separation. These parameters depend on the scintillating material and light readout device and typically require a lengthy optimization process and a calibration reference measurement with a mixed source. In this paper, we propose a new method based on the scintillation fluorescence physics that enables to find the optimum PSD integration gates using only a gamma-ray emitter. We demonstrate our method using three organic scintillation detectors: deuterated trans-stilbene, small-molecule organic glass, and EJ-309. In all the investigated cases, our method allowed finding the optimum PSD CI parameters without the need of iterative optimization.
KW - Exponential model
KW - Fast neutron detection
KW - PSD
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85150917345
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85150917345#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1016/j.nima.2023.168184
DO - 10.1016/j.nima.2023.168184
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85150917345
SN - 0168-9002
VL - 1050
JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
M1 - 168184
ER -