Improvement in Neutron Detector Selectivity by Utilizing Multiple Gamma-Quantum Production in Gadolinium-Containing Inorganic Scintillators

It was shown that the phenomenon of multiple gamma-quantum production resulting from the radiative capture of neutrons by gadolinium nuclei can be used to increase the neutron selectivity of scintillation detectors. A detector design is proposed in which 16 optically isolated gadolinium containing scintillators are connected to the silicon photomultipliers matrix, and event selection is performed in coincidence mode based on the number of channels from which a signal is received. It is shown that selecting events for which three or more channels were triggered, suppresses the background gamma-quantum counting rate by 114 times and the neutron counting rate by 21 times, thereby increasing the neutron selectivity by 5.6 times.

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