SBIR/STTR Award attributes
High spatial resolution crystal diffractometer are important for Neutron single-crystal diffraction SCD) and neutron reflectometry NR), which are powerful tools to study the crystal structure and morphology of complicated organic and inorganic materials, and to address structural problems in diverse research areas including chemistry, earth sciences, materials science, engineering, and solid-state physics. All of these studies, and more, would benefit by an enhanced spatial and temporal resolution of the neutron imaging system with high efficiency and high gamma rejection ratio GRR). The goal of the proposed effort is to develop semiconducting material, lithium indium selenide LiInSe2), based neutron detection arrays. LiInSe2, exhibits an extremely high neutron detection efficiency, due to the 25% Li concentration. Furthermore, the large 4.78 MeV Q-value provides an intrinsic potential for excellent neutron/gamma discrimination. In Phase I, we will develop a segmented LiInSe2 detector configuration and scale up the production process to produce larger area detectors with spatial resolution of 0.3mm to 0.5mm and GRR up to 10-6, compared to typically employed neutron Anger cameras with spatial resolution of 1 mm and GRR of 10-5. The goal of Phase I is to demonstrate the feasibility of producing segmented LiInSe2 detectors and characterizing the uniformity of response, spatial resolution, and GRR. This research is being carried out in collaboration with researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In addition to their use in neutron scattering instruments, a system capable of high efficiency detection of neutrons with high spatial resolution and good GRR will find applications in various other systems in research, homeland security, nuclear physics, medical imaging and material sciences.
