Solid state detector for high spatial resolution coupled to a single event acquisition system for slow neutron detection

In the next years the slow neutron scattering community is waiting for a continuous improvement of the neutron detectors because of the development of the new and more intense neutron sources and to obtain a better performance of the neutron instrumentation to face the higher demands and new capabilities necessary for the novel experiments. In particular detectors having a faster response and a better shape of the time response must be produced, while new and more flexible acquisition systems must be introduced in order to collect in the proper way the information carried by the scattered neutrons. At present inside the neutron detector community the lack for detectors having a spatial resolution below 1 mm is evident. In the past it has been already demonstrated that a silicon microstrip detector coupled to a Gadolinium foil, used as neutron converter, provides a good performance neutron detector. In the present paper we present a 128 channel detector which has been designed for operation in the thermal neutron region with 0.55 mm spatial resolution, 100 ns time resolution and 25 ns time stamp accuracy. We present a new approach for the acquisition of the neutron arrival time, based on a single event storage by manipulating the detector digital output using a programmable acquisition system which takes advantage from high performance industrial standard hardware employing a FPGA and a real-time on board processor. We suggest the use of the single neutron event: storing to make the time to energy transformation more efficient in the case of time of flight inelastic scattering, where the conversion from angle and time to momentum and energy is necessary. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.