Response of inorganic scintillators to neutrons of 3 and 15 MeV energy

In the perspective of the development of future high energy physics experiments, homogeneous calorimeters based on inorganic scintillators can be considered for the detection of hadrons (e.g., calorimeter based on dual-readout technique). Although of high importance in the high energy physics framework as well as for homeland security applications, the response of these inorganic scintillators to neutrons has been only scarcely investigated. This paper presents results obtained using five common scintillating crystals (of size around 222 cm3), namely lead tungstate (PbWO4), bismuth germanate (BGO), cerium fluoride (CeF3), Ce-doped lutetium-yttrium orthosilicate (LYSO:Ce) and lutetium aluminum garnet (LuAG:Ce) in a pulsed flux of almost mono-energetic (~3 MeV and ~15 MeV) neutrons provided by the Van de Graff accelerator SAMES of CEA Valduc. Energy spectra have been recorded, calibrated and compared with Geant4 simulations computed with different physics models. The neutron detection efficiency for these crystals has been estimated and compared with simulation. ©2013 IEEE.