Development of a Bragg-edge Neutron Transmission Imaging Detector Combined with Micro-structured Boron Cathode and Glass Gas Electron Multiplier

Abstract

A neutron detector with a micro-structured boron cathode and a glass gas electron multiplier (GEM) has been developed for time-of-flight Bragg edge neutron transmission imaging. The detector has a field of view of 100 × 100 mm2 and 128 × 128 pixels (pixel size 0.8 × 0.8 mm2). The neutron imaging performance of the detector was evaluated at a compact electron accelerator-driven neutron source (AISTANS). By comparison with a Li-glass detector, we found that our detector has a detection efficiency of 5% for 4 Å neutrons. In addition, a preliminary time-of-flight neutron imaging test was performed to observe the difference between the face-centered and body-centered cubic crystal structures, from which we confirmed that our detector has sufficient stability and time resolution for use in Bragg edge imaging analysis.