TY - JOUR
T1 - Generalized method for the optimization of pulse shape discrimination parameters
AU - Zhou, J.
AU - Abdulaziz, Abdullah
AU - Altmann, Yoann
AU - Di Fulvio, Angela
N1 - Funding Information:
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 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/5
Y1 - 2023/5
N2 - Organic scintillators exhibit fast timing, high detection efficiency for fast neu- trons and pulse shape discrimination (PSD) capability. PSD is essential in mixed radiation fields, where different types of radiation need to be detected and dis- criminated. 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 sepa- ration. 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 demon- strate 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 neu- trons and pulse shape discrimination (PSD) capability. PSD is essential in mixed radiation fields, where different types of radiation need to be detected and dis- criminated. 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 sepa- ration. 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 demon- strate 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 - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150917345&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.nima.2023.168184
DO - 10.1016/j.nima.2023.168184
M3 - Article
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 -