TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantifying neutron scintillator screens with X-ray computed tomography
AU - Chuirazzi, William
AU - Cool, Steven
AU - Craft, Aaron
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07- 051D14517 as part of the Nuclear Science User Facilities. Authors would like to acknowledge the Irradiated Materials Characterization Laboratory (IMCL) at the Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) at Idaho National Laboratory for their support of X-ray computed tomography endeavors in this work. Special thanks to Dr. Burkhard Schillinger for enlightening discussion and thoughtful comments in relation to this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors
PY - 2024/6
Y1 - 2024/6
N2 - As nondestructive imaging techniques become more commonplace, imaging systems must be improved and optimized to meet the growing demand. One key aspect of neutron imaging systems is the scintillator, which determines the time necessary to acquire an image and can also limit the spatial resolution achievable by a system. In this work, X-ray computed tomography was coupled with image processing to measure parameters of a boron-based neutron scintillator screen. The screen's surface and subsurface were examined for defects and a thickness measurement as a function of position was also successfully implemented. Higher resolution scans of a sub-volume of the scintillator coating enabled visualization of the packing of the converter and phosphor powders while also revealing microscopic porosity within the scintillator material. The converter-to-phosphor ratio was quantified with the examined area showing a ZnS:Ag phosphor volume of approximately 60.70% of the entire scintillator volume, while Na10B5O8 converter accounted for approximately 38.76% of the volume.
AB - As nondestructive imaging techniques become more commonplace, imaging systems must be improved and optimized to meet the growing demand. One key aspect of neutron imaging systems is the scintillator, which determines the time necessary to acquire an image and can also limit the spatial resolution achievable by a system. In this work, X-ray computed tomography was coupled with image processing to measure parameters of a boron-based neutron scintillator screen. The screen's surface and subsurface were examined for defects and a thickness measurement as a function of position was also successfully implemented. Higher resolution scans of a sub-volume of the scintillator coating enabled visualization of the packing of the converter and phosphor powders while also revealing microscopic porosity within the scintillator material. The converter-to-phosphor ratio was quantified with the examined area showing a ZnS:Ag phosphor volume of approximately 60.70% of the entire scintillator volume, while Na10B5O8 converter accounted for approximately 38.76% of the volume.
KW - Neutron scintillator screen
KW - Nondestructive examination
KW - Scintillator screen characterization
KW - X-ray computed tomography
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85189039552
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/713d73a2-4f3a-35e0-b12b-0a2e131faa0c/
U2 - 10.1016/j.nima.2024.169248
DO - 10.1016/j.nima.2024.169248
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85189039552
SN - 0168-9002
VL - 1063
JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
M1 - 169248
ER -