Characterization of a 10B-doped liquid scintillator as a capture-gated neutron spectrometer

Abstract

We use a 250 MHz digitizer to characterize the pulse shape discrimination of a BC-523A 10B-doped liquid scintillator with capture-gating capabilities. Our results are compared to recent work claiming pulse shape discrimination between fast and thermal neutron signals. The capture event is identified, and we explain the origin of signals that are often misinterpreted. We use the time-of-flight method to measure the detector energy resolution for fast incident monoenergetic neutrons and the intrinsic neutron detection efficiency. Monte Carlo simulations are performed and we find agreement between measured and simulated results. These steps are important for understanding 10B-doped capture-gated spectroscopy in mixed radiation environments, as efficiencies using capture-gating are rarely reported in the literature.