The Helium-3 shortage and the growing interest in neutron science constitute a driving factor in developing new neutron detection technologies. In this work, we report the development of a double-GEM detector prototype that uses a 10B4C layer as a neutron converter material. GEANT4 simulations were performed predicting an efficiency of 3.14(10) %, agreeing within 2.7 σ with the experimental and analytic detection efficiencies obtained by the detector when tested in a 41.8 meV thermal neutron beam. The detector is position sensitive, equipped with a 256+256 strip readout connected to resistive chains, and achieves a spatial resolution better than 3 mm. The gain stability over time was also measured with a fluctuation of about 0.2 %h−1 of the signal amplitude. A simple data acquisition with only 5 electronic channels is sufficient to operate this detector.
@article{arxiv.2205.07122,
title = {Double-GEM based thermal neutron detector prototype},
author = {L. A. Serra Filho and R. Felix dos Santos and G. G. A. de Souza and M. M. M. Paulino and F. A. Souza and M. Moralles and H. Natal da Luz and M. Bregant and M. G. Munhoz and Chung-Chuan Lai and Carina Höglund and Per-Olof Svensson and Linda Robinson and Richard Hall-Wilton},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.07122},
year = {2022}
}