Noble gas excimer scintillation following neutron capture in boron thin films
Far-ultraviolet scintillation signals have been measured in heavy noble gases (argon, krypton, xenon) following boron-neutron capture (10B(n,α)7Li) in 10B thin films. The observed scintillation yields are comparable to the yields from some liquid and solid neutron scintillators. At noble gas pressures of 107 kPa, the number of photons produced per neutron absorbed following irradiation of a 1200 nm thick 10B film was 14 000 for xenon, 11 000 for krypton, and 6000 for argon. The absolute scintillation yields from the experimental configuration were calculated using data from (1) experimental irradiations, (2) thin-film characterizations, (3) photomultiplier tube calibrations, and (4) photon collection modeling. Both the boron films and the photomultiplier tube were characterized at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Monte Carlo modeling of the reaction cell provided estimates of the photon collection efficiency and the transport behavior of 10B(n,α)7Li reaction products escaping the thin f...