ZnO thermal neutron scintillators designed for high sensitivity and gamma-ray discrimination

Recently the authors proposed new scintillator designs for the detection of thermal neutrons based on initiating the (n, ±) reaction in ⁶Li-doped ZnO and ZnO/⁶LiF/ZnO structures as a potential replacement for ³He tubes [1]. In this paper the critical material properties and structure parameters required to optimize detector performance both for high sensitivity and high neutron-to-gamma ray discrimination are identified and examined. Scintillator neutron detector design guidelines are established through modeling and simulation of detector construction based on experimental results.