Background: Neutron sources are increasingly employed in a wide range of research fields. For some specific purposes an alternative to existing large-scale neutron scattering facilities, can be offered by the new generation of portable neutron devices.
Scope of review: This review reports an overview for such recently available neutron generators mainly addressed to biophysics applications with specific reference to portable non-stationary neutron generators applied in Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA).
Major conclusions: The review reports a description of a typical portable neutron generator set-up addressed to biophysics applications.
General significance: New generation portable neutron devices, for some specific applications, can constitute an alternative to existing large-scale neutron scattering facilities. Deuterium-Deuterium pulsed neutron sources able to generate 2.5MeV neutrons, with a neutron yield of 1.0×106n/s, a pulse rate of 250Hz to 20kHz and a duty factor varying from 5% to 100%, when combined with solid-state photon detectors, show that this kind of compact devices allow rapid and user-friendly elemental analysis. "This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Science for Life" Guest Editor: Dr. Austen Angell, Dr. Salvatore Magazù and Dr. Federica Migliardo".
Keywords: Elemental analysis; Gamma spectroscopy; Neutron Generator.
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.