Evaluation of Monte Carlo Codes Regarding the Calculated Detector Response Function in NDP Method

The basis of the NDP is the irradiation of a sample with a thermal or cold neutron beam and the subsequent release of charged particles due to neutron-induced exoergic charged particle reactions. Neutrons interact with the nuclei of elements and release mono-energetic charged particles, e.g. alpha particles or protons, and recoil atoms. Depth profile of the analyzed element can be obtained by making a linear transformation of the measured energy spectrum by using the stopping power of the sample material. A few micrometer of the material can be analyzed nondestructively, and on the order of 10nm depth resolution can be obtained depending on the material type with NDP method. In the NDP method, the one first steps of the analytical process is a channel-energy calibration. This calibration is normally made with the experimental measurement of NIST Standard Reference Material sample (SRM-93a). In this study, some Monte Carlo (MC) codes were tried to calculate the Si detector response function when this detector accounted the energy charges particles emitting from an analytical sample. In addition, these MC codes were also tried to calculate the depth distributions of some light elements (¹⁰B, ³He, ⁶Li, etc.) in SRM-93a and SRM-2137 samples. These calculated profiles were compared with the experimental profiles and SIMS profiles. In this study, some popular MC neutron transport codes are tried and tested to calculate the detector response function in the NDP method. The simulations were modeled based on the real CN-NDP system which is a part of Cold Neutron Activation Station (CONAS) at HANARO (KAERI). The MC simulations are very successful at predicting the alpha peaks in the measured energy spectrum. The net area difference between the measured and predicted alpha peaks are less than 1%. A possible explanation might be bad cross section data set usage in the MC codes for the transport of low energetic lithium atoms inside the silicon substrate