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A C OMPLETE M ICRO/ N ANO S YSTEM S OLUTION FOR A LPHA, B ETA, G AMMA, AND N EUTRON D ETECTION

A C OMPLETE M ICRO/ N ANO S YSTEM S OLUTION FOR A LPHA, B ETA, G AMMA, AND N EUTRON D ETECTION . Dr. Chester Wilson Louisiana Tech University President, Cybercorps Interactive. Why Is Nuclear Energy a Big Part of The Answer?.

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A C OMPLETE M ICRO/ N ANO S YSTEM S OLUTION FOR A LPHA, B ETA, G AMMA, AND N EUTRON D ETECTION

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  1. A COMPLETE MICRO/NANOSYSTEM SOLUTION FOR ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA, AND NEUTRON DETECTION Dr. Chester Wilson Louisiana Tech University President, Cybercorps Interactive

  2. Why Is Nuclear Energy a Big Part of The Answer? • Decades of operational safety exceeding other energy producers. • Zero greenhouse gas emissions. • Fantastic power densities. • Domestic energy production.

  3. Why Is Nuclear Energy a Big Part of The Answer? • Decades of operational safety exceeding other energy producers. • Zero greenhouse gas emissions. • Fantastic power densities. • Domestic energy production. • Around 40% of plant fuel comes from reprocessed ex-soviet nuclear weapons.

  4. Weapons Grade Plutonium Becoming Energy

  5. Other Guys Want it Too

  6. Traditional Radiation Detectors Traditional Method of Detection is Geiger Counter. Problem: Most detect Alphas, Betas, Gammas, but not Neutrons. He3 and BF3 tubes detect neutrons, but are toxic and expensive.

  7. Traditional Radiation Detectors Traditional Method of Detection is Geiger Counter. Problem: Most detect Alphas, Betas, Gammas, but not Neutrons. He3 and BF3 tubes detect neutrons, but are toxic and expensive. Important because weapons grade plutonium emits neutrons, not much else does

  8. How do you shield neutrons? Terrorist Lead ? Bomb Maker

  9. Neutrons vs. Lead Neutron interacting with Pb Since the mass of the neutron is much smaller than the larger Pb atoms, the neutron recoils without losing much energy. The neutrons continuously bounce around able to exit the lead shielding.

  10. NEED FOR DETECTORS Terrorist Plastic ? Bomb Maker

  11. NEED FOR DETECTORS Neutron interacting with H Since the mass of the neutron is approximately equal to the H atoms, the neutron can transfer up to its full energy. The recoil H nuclei has a small range losing energy quickly.

  12. Nanoparticle Neutron Detection Gadolinium oxide is opaque, but… Transparency! This scintillator is loaded with 30% gadolinium oxide, but because the nanoparticles are too small to scatter light, it is transparent. And this allows a patternable film to make imaging Arrays with better spatial resolution and gamma selectivity.

  13. Nanoparticle Neutron Detection Neutron detection is enabled through gadolinium nanoparticles, 255,000 barn absorption: 1000X smaller than anything else. Measurements taken at Entergy Nuclear’s Grand Gulf Facility

  14. Four Channel Device Problem: limited to the types of radiation detected Solution: dope with charge conversion nanoparticles Radiation impinging on tailored nanoparticles create electrons, which scintillates a background matrix. WO3 – Beta Detection Pb3O4 – Gamma/X-ray Detection Glass – Alpha Detection Gd2O3 – Neutron Detection

  15. DEVICE DESIGN Four channels embedded into a sandblasted glass substrate Optical cross talk barrier to reduce cross talk between detector channels

  16. RESULTS Gamma detection— 60Co emits both gammas and betas so lead sheets are used to block betas in order to detect only gammas and demonstrate the difficulty in shielding gammas. Pulse height spectroscopy— Tailored resins use different conversion mechanisms producing varying PM tube outputs

  17. MULTIPLE LAYERSMORE INFORMATION Varying thicknesses for top layer scintillator allows for different count rates Energy spectroscopy capability by determining where the energy deposition took place as a function of top layer thickness

  18. Bottom layer— With a decay constant of 285 ns, the created photons do not produce a ringing pulse. RESULTS Top layer— With a decay constant of 2.3 ns, the created photons produce a ringing pulse.

  19. PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD High Voltage Power Converter Pulse Shaping

  20. PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD • Autoroute function to layout the copper traces after the components are placed. Design the printed circuit board using Eagle software.

  21. Microscale Photomultiplier Tube • Photomultiplier tube components Photocathode Series of Dynodes Anode

  22. Beating the State of the Art • The count rates increase from non-doped scintillator to heavier doped scintillator. • Neutron sensitivity around 11% vs. around 0.2% on tube

  23. Working Towards Cheap Pen Size Detector Fully integrated radiation detector Build smaller and cheaper components Integrated Circuits Miniaturized PM tube Goal Hockey puck style detector Pager sized Eventually pen sized

  24. Thanks • Funding Sources: • Entergy Nuclear • Department of Energy • National Science Foundation • Office of the Director of National Intelligence

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