Speaker
Description
Alternatives to He3 gas based neutron detectors have long been sought after following increasing shortages in the last decades. While some technologies exist, organic electronics have seen widespread scientific interest use due to their tunability, scalability and cost-effectiveness. This project builds on these paradigms to present an organic semiconductor based fast neutron camera, with potential later sensitisation to thermal neutrons. This can serve a multitude of applications including nuclear security and safeguarding, fundamental particle physics, reactor monitoring and medical physics.
The design uses PNDI(2OD)2T as the organic polymer and much of the initial testing was conducted using an Am-241 370kBq alpha source. This allows for safe and ease of use while providing illustrative results given the fast neutron detection mechanism involves an intermediate alpha particle. Some preliminary neutron tests using our in-house AmBe-based irradiation facility [1] will follow soon.
Supplementary to previous initial testing and validation [2], I present the expansion of this technology exploring different electrode designs, moving towards PCB substrates for electrical integration, as well as preliminary signal amplification. We also present some results for radiation tolerance studies at the SCK-CEN BRIGITTE facility in Mol, Belgium featuring a primarily 1 MeV gamma Co-60 source, operated with help from colleagues at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, to demonstrate device operation up to a total irradiated dose of up to 0.92MGy.
Once materials, design, characterisation and amplification are finalised for a single pixel, a multipixel array can be explored for imaging. This would be paired with several field tests to build a database with characteristic responses given different materials and applications.
[1] A. J. Bevan and I. Dawson. Characterisation and monte carlo validation of a compact AmBe neutron irradiation facility providing fast and thermal neutron fields for detector development, 2026.
[2] Aled Horner et al., Direct neutron detectors based on carborane containing conjugated polymers, 2025