Neutron Imaging With Li-Glass Based Multicore SCIntillating FIber (SCIFI)

The improvement of neutron imaging towards and beyond the microscale is a well-documented need for the iterative characterization and modeling of numerous microstructured X-ray opaque materials. This work presents the recent progress in evaluating a SCIntillating FIber (SCIFI) proof-of-concept towards micron-level thermal neutron radiography. These SCIFIs are composed of
⁶
Li-enriched silicate glass cores doped with a Ce activator. The cores possess ∼8.5 μm diameters and ∼10 μm pitch following fiber drawing with a cladding glass into an all-solid multicore fiber. A polished 5 mm × 5 mm array of 100 microstructured multicore SCIFI pixels was fabricated into a 1 mm thick faceplate. The neutron efficiency and light yield of the faceplate are characterized as functions of the 7.38 weight percent of Li
₂
O, thickness, and the 70% active volume. It was determined that approximately 39% of a thermal neutron (
$\text{2 }$
Å) beam can be absorbed by the faceplate. The
$^6{\rm{Li}}({n,\; \alpha })t$
reaction is estimated to produce 7,700 ± 1,000 scintillation photons per event, referencing light collection from
²⁴¹
Am irradiation of the faceplate. Simulations suggest that on average 17.5 ± 1.4% of these photons will be transported to an end of the fiber array for a thermal beam, with at least 7.2% of that total scintillation light being confined into the fiber cores in which it originated. The SCIFI faceplate was integrated into the Neutron Microscope (NM) at the Pulse OverLap DIffractometer (POLDI) beamline located at the Paul Scherrer Institut to image a Siemens star test object. Processed neutron radiographs acquired with the proof-of-concept faceplate resolved features at a state-of-the-art resolution of 16.1 ± 0.5 μm. The potential for even high resolution designs having smaller pitch or different cladding material is discussed.