Scintillation Powders for the Detection of Neutrons

This paper presents scintillation powders, such as GdOBr:Ce, BaMgAl
₁₀
O
₁₇
:Eu, Mn, YAP:Ce, and YAG:Ce, for the detection of neutrons of wide energy ranges in connection with suitable conversion isotope. The influence of particle size of scintillators was studied as well as the fraction size of conversion powder. In addition, the proper mixture ratio was also investigated. Several powders are commercially available, but not used in neutron detectors. The inaccessible powders were self-prepared by solid-state synthesis. At the beginning, the response of selected scintillation powders to alpha and gamma radiation was studied. The results and properties of chosen scintillators were compared with ZnS:Ag in connection with
⁶
LiF. This paper aims to take advantage of current knowledge in the field of scintillation materials synthesis and to find a fast scintillation material with properties similar to ZnS:Ag.