Design of a novel compact neutron collimator

In this work the concept of a novel slow neutron collimator and the way to operate it are presented. The idea is based on the possibility to decouple the device's field-of-view from its collimation power. A multi-channel geometry is proposed consisting of a chess-board structure where highly neutron-absorbing channels are alternated to air channels. A borated polymer was purposely developed to produce the attenuating components in the form of square-sectioned long rods. A scalable structure consisting of multiple collimation sectors can be arranged. The geometrical parameter L/D, corresponding to the ratio between the length of a channel and its width, defines the collimation power. Several sectors can be arranged one after the other to reach relevant collimation powers. Each sector, 100 mm long, is composed by several channels with D = 2.5 mm corresponding to an L/D coefficient of 40. The target field of view is 50×50 mm². This novel collimator, developed inside the INFN-ANET collaboration, due to its intrinsic compactness, will be of great importance to enhance the neutron imaging capability of small to medium-size neutron sources. (paper)