Neutron Imaging

Neutron interrogation provides unique information valuable for Nonproliferation & Materials Control and other important applications including medicine, airport security, protein crystallography, and corrosion detection. Neutrons probe deep inside massive objects to detect small defects and chemical composition, even through high atomic number materials such as lead. However, current detectors are bulky gas-filled tubes or scintillator/PM tubes, which severely limit many applications. Therefore this project was undertaken to develop new semiconductor radiation detection materials to develop the first direct digital imaging detectors for neutrons. The approach relied on new discovery and characterization of new solidstate sensor materials which convert neutrons directly to electronic signals via reactions BlO(n,a)Li7 and Li6(n,a)T.