Neutron Detection with a Cryogenic Spectrometer

Cryogenic calorimeters are used for x-ray detection because of their exquisite energy resolution and have found application in x-ray astronomy, and the search for dark matter. These devices operate by detecting the heat pulse produced by ionization in an absorber cooled to temperatures below 1 K. Such temperatures are needed to lower the absorber's heat capacity to the point that the deposition of even a few eV results in a measurable temperature excursion. Typical absorbers for dark matter measurements are massive Si or Ge crystals, and, with Ge, have achieved a resolution of 650 eV at 10 keV. Chow, et al., report the measurement of the 60 keV emission from 241Am with 230 eV resolution using a superconducting tin absorber. Cunningham, et al., also using a superconducting tin absorber, have recently reported a four-fold improvement over Chow. With such results being reported from the x- and gamma-ray world it is natural to examine the possibilities for cryogenic neutron spectroscopy. Such a detector would operate by detecting the heat pulses caused by neutron capture and scattering. To date, 6LiF has been the absorber of choice because relatively large crystals can be grown, and it is an insulating material with low heat capacity. Silver reports the fabrication of a 6LiF spectrometer operating at 328 mK and achieving a resolution of 39 keV. De Marcillac reports the fabrication of a spectrometer operating at 80 mK and achieving 16 keV resolution when bombarded with 5 MeV alpha particles. In this paper, we report preliminary results with a TiB2 absorber exposed to thermal neutrons. In contrast to lithium, whose chemistry selects for LiF as the absorber, boron offers a rich chemistry from which to select materials with high boron content. We will discuss the considerations governing the choice of absorber material as well as the basic considerations needed to understand a cryogenic spectrometer. The capture and scattering reactions in boron and lithium were modeled with MCNP. The modeling results and methods of analysis applicable to lithium- and boron-based spectrometers will be given