Speaker
Description
The neutron production capability of the 1.7 MV Tandem accelerator, located at the Centro Atómico Bariloche, Argentina, has been evaluated using the nuclear reaction $^{45}\text{Sc}(p, n)^{45}\text{Ti}$. It is known that if the scandium (Sc) target is thin enough and the incident protons have a well-defined energy in the range from 2908.98 keV to 2948.89 keV, monoenergetic neutrons can be generated from different resonances of this reaction. By adjusting the proton energy, the neutron energy can be selected among 38 discrete lines, ranging from 4.06 keV to 51.62 keV, depending on the excited resonance. The main objective of this work is to use these monoenergetic neutrons to characterize different types of detectors, particularly semiconductor and neutron detectors. A key aspect that can be studied in detail with these neutrons is the Silicon Quenching Factor (QF), an intrinsic property of this semiconductor material. This QF is of great interest in applications such as dark matter and neutrino detection using Charge Coupled Devices (CCD), as well as for the characterization of various neutron detectors and dosimeters. For this purpose, in this study, thick Sc samples were irradiated with a collimated proton beam of different energies, ranging from 2800 keV to 3000 keV, thus exciting several Sc resonances. The neutron yield was recorded using a $^3\text{He}$ detector bank placed near the sample, and the neutron background generated by the accelerator was estimated by irradiating a graphite sample and then subtracting this background from the Sc signal. The neutron yield from the $^{45}\text{Sc}(p, n)^{45}\text{Ti}$ reaction as a function of the incident proton energy is presented. We conclude that irradiating with 3 MeV protons at 20 nA, the neutron flux at 50 cm from the sample in the forward direction is approximately 0.66 neutrons/cm²/s.
