Neutron radiography as a non-destructive method for diagnosing neutron converters for advanced thermal neutron detectors

Due to the well-known problem of 3He shortage, a series of different thermal neutron detectors alternative to helium tubes are being developed, with the goal to find valid candidates for detection systems for the future spallation neutron sources such as the European Spallation Source (ESS). A possible 3He-free detector candidate is a charged particle detector equipped with a three dimensional neutron converter cathode (3D-C). The 3D-C currently under development is composed by a series of alumina (Al2O3) lamellas coated by 1 μm of 10B enriched boron carbide (B4C). In order to obtain a good characterization in terms of detector efficiency and uniformity it is crucial to know the thickness, the uniformity and the atomic composition of the B4C neutron converter coating. In this work a non-destructive technique for the characterization of the lamellas that will compose the 3D-C was performed using neutron radiography. The results of these measurements show that the lamellas that will be used have coating uniformity suitable for detector applications. This technique (compared with SEM, EDX, ERDA, XPS) has the advantage of being global (i.e. non point-like) and non-destructive, thus it is suitable as a check method for mass production of the 3D-C elements.