Digitalized two parametric system for gamma/neutron spectrometry
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | 18th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (RPSD 2014) |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Computer hardware and software |
| Keywords | gamma/neutron spectrometry; discrimination; spectrometry; PSD; two-parameter spectrometer; neutron spectrometry |
| Attached files | |
| Description | Many types of detectors like stilbene, NE-213 etc. in conjunction with photomultiplier loaded with low working resistance produce pulses of approximately 100 ns length and contain information about deposited particle in the trailing edge. Using fast analog to digital converters (ADC) and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) it is possible to create a spectrometric system working in mixed gamma and neutron fields which is not loaded dead time. The count rate of processed pulses can reach more than one million per second. Such a high count rate of processed pulses can be achieved due to the pulse processing is implemented in FPGA. The output of this pulse processing is amplitude which describes the energy of deposited particle and discrimination parameter whereby it is possible to discriminate photons and neutrons. To increase the dynamic range of energy of detectable particle the signal from photomultiplier is separated into two branches with different amplification. Each branch is digitalized by separate ADC. Components from which the system is composed are so light that the spectrometer can be easily transported. Its weight is less than 3 kilograms. Spectrometer was tested in the research reactor LR-0 in Rez near Prague (Czech Republic). The measured data was processed using deconvolution into a neutron flux density and compared with nowadays used analog spectrometer and simulation result. Measured neutron spectrum of Cf-252 is included. |
| Related projects: |