GEANT4 simulations of a novel³He-free thermalization neutron detector

A novel concept for3He-free thermalization detector is here investigated by means of GEANT4 simulations. The detector is based on strips of solid-state detectors with6Li deposit for neutron conversion. Various geometrical configurations have been investigated in order to find the optimal solution, in terms of value and energy dependence of the efficiency for neutron energies up to 10 MeV. The expected performance of the new detector is compared with those of an optimized thermalization detector based on standard3He tubes. Although an3He-based detector is superior in terms of performance and simplicity, the proposed solution may become more appealing in terms of costs in case of shortage of3He supply.