APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING NEUTRONS USING NEUTRON-ABSORBING CALORIMETRIC GAMMA DETECTORS Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC G01T3/06 

FIELD: radio engineering, communication.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to an apparatus for detecting neutron radiation, preferably slow neutrons, having a gamma ray scintillator containing an inorganic material with an attenuation length L_g of less than 10 cm, preferably less than 5 cm, for gamma rays of 5 MeV energy to provide high gamma ray stopping power for energetic gamma rays within the gamma ray scintillator. The gamma ray scintillator further includes components with a product of neutron capture cross section and concentration leading to an absorption length L_n for slow neutrons which is larger than 0.5 cm but smaller than five times, preferably two times, the attenuation length L_g for 5 MeV gamma rays in the scintillator. Neutron-absorbing components of the gamma ray scintillator release energy which is transferred to excited nuclei after neutron capture, mainly through gamma radiation, wherein the gamma ray scintillator has diameter or edge length of at least 50% L_g, preferably at least L_g, to absorb a considerable part of the energy of the gamma rays released after neutron capture in the scintillator; the apparatus further includes a light detector optically connected to the gamma ray scintillator for detecting the amount of light in the gamma ray scintillator; the apparatus further includes an evaluation device connected to the light detector. Said evaluation device is capable of determining the amount of light detected by the light detector for one scintillation event, said amount being in a known ratio to the energy transferred by gamma radiation in the gamma ray scintillator. The evaluation device is configured to classify detected radiation as neutrons when the measured total gamma energy E_sum is above 2.614 MeV.

EFFECT: high accuracy of detecting neutrons.

20 cl, 4 dwg