Extended time-of-flight measurements down to 100 keV at the AMANDE facility with a stilbene scintillator

Abstract

The time-of-flight (ToF) method with scintillators is routinely used for determining neutron energy. However, a technical difficulty related to the loss of scintillator efficiency below 1 MeV makes this technique difficult to implement for the energy decade [100 keV-1 MeV]. New crystal production techniques provide stilbene scintillators efficient in this low neutron energy region, making it possible to extend the ToF technique below 1 MeV. In this manner, measurements of secondary reactions (d,n) on carbon or oxygen nuclei in this range become feasible, which should lead to improved reference calibration conditions in neutron fields produced by a deuterium ion beam.