PIN diode and neutron spectrum measurements at the Army Pulse Radiation Facility

The Army Pulse Radiation Facility (APRF) is a multi-faceted facility operating a Godiva type pulse reactor, housed in a low scatter aluminum silo 30m in diameter and 20m high. The reactor is movable to several locations and heights. Several well characterized exposure environments are available for experiments. When testing silicon devices against a nuclear threat, it is essential to consider the difference between the neutron energy spectrum of the threat environment and that of the test environment. In this paper, neutron spectrum measurements using the foil activation technique have been made in two widely varying environments. One is an extremely high neutron-to-gamma field and the other extremely low. These measurements were used to characterize the fields and to evaluate the use of the DN-156 PIN diode for measuring 1 MeV equivalent neutron fluence in silicon (Φ1MeV(Si)). The agreement between the Φ1MeV(Si) as measured with diodes and as determined by the spectral measurements was within ± 5%. A proton recoil neutron spectrum measurement was also made in the low gamma environment