Development of a gamma and neutron detector using the TlBr crystal

In recent years there has been an increasing demand for new types of gamma and neutron detectors to be used in applications such as spectrometers, photodetectors, surgical probes, detection of nuclear weapons, materials characterization, etc. For these applications it is necessary to dispose of small, portable and reliable detectors. Semiconductor detectors based on wide-gap materials, like TlBr, can be used to detect gamma and neutrons radiations. In this work the results of studies concerning the response of the TlBr detectors to gamma and neutrons are presented. The spectrometric performance of the TlBr detector was evaluated by 22Na (511 keV) and 137Cs (662 keV) gamma-ray excitation sources at room temperature. The detectors showed satisfactory resolution values. To evaluate this crystal as a neutron semiconductor detector, systematic measurements with AmBe source were carried out. This source has a large energy spectrum, approximately from 1 MeV at 12 MeV, with a peak around 4.2 MeV. At the present time, results have been demonstrated that neutrons can be detected by TlBr detector. The TlBr detector characterization has shown good response to gamma and neutron radiation. (author)