Spectrometry and dosimetry of fast neutrons using pin diode detectors

Elastic scattering of light nuclei, especially hydrogen, is widely used for detection of fast neutrons. Semiconductor devices based on silicon detectors are frequently used for different radiation detections. In this work, a neutron spectrometer consisting of a pin diode coupled with a polyethylene converter and aluminum degrader layers has been developed. Aluminum layers are used as discriminators of different neutron energies for detectors. The response of the converter–degrader–pin diode configuration, the optimum thickness of the converter and the degrader layers have been extracted using MCNP and SRIM simulation codes. The possibility of using this type of detector for fast neutron spectrometry and dosimetry has been investigated. A fairly good agreement was seen between neutron energy spectrum and dose obtained from our configurations and these specifications from an 241Am–Be neutron source.