Characteristics of uranium oxide cathode for neutron streak camera

In laser fusion research, time-resolved neutron measurements require 20ps resolution in order to obtain the time history of the D-T burn. Uranium oxide was expected to be a sensitive material as a cathode of a neutron streak camera because of its large fission cross section. The authors report their measurements of some characteristics of the uranium oxide cathode connected to a conventional streak tube. 14 MeV neutron signal were observed as the bright spots on a TV monitor using a focus mode opration. Detection efficiency was ∼ 1 x 10-6 for 1 μm thick cathode. Each signal consisted of more than several tens of components, which were corresponding to the secondary electrons dragged out from the cathode by a fission fragment. Time resolution is thought to be limited mainly by the transit time spread of the secondary electrons. 14ps resolution was obtained by a streak mode operation for a single fission event