Neutron spectrometry by scintillation spectrometer and by hydrogen-filled proportional counters

The evaluation of neutron spectra measured by hydrogen-filled proportional counters and a scintillation spectrometer with a stilbene crystal can be divided in four stages. The first stage consists of the gain calibration of the measuring equipment and the detector. The second stage consists of the transformation of the measured spectra in the pulse amplitude scale into the proton energy scale and their grouping by the chosen energy regions. In the third stage proton spectra are corrected for the effect of proton leakage from the detector and for double neutron scattering. The corrected (ideal) proton spectra are transformed to neutron spectra by direct differentiation. The above methodology may only be applied to spherical counters filled with hydrogen and to a scintillation spectrometer with an equilateral cylindrical stilbene crystal. (Kr)