Integrated readout of organic scintillator and ZnS:Ag/6LiF for segmented antineutrino detectors

Antineutrino detection using inverse beta decay conversion has demonstrated the capability to measure nuclear reactor power and fissile material content for nuclear safeguards. Current efforts focus on aboveground deployment scenarios, for which highly efficient capture and identification of neutrons is needed to measure the anticipated antineutrino event rates in an elevated background environment. In this submission, we report on initial characterization of a new scintillation-based segmented design that uses layers of ZnS:Ag/⁶LiF and an integrated readout technique to capture and identify neutrons created in the inverse beta decay reaction. Laboratory studies with multiple organic scintillator and ZnS:Ag/⁶LiF configurations reliably identify ⁶Li neutron captures in 60 cm-long segments using pulse shape discrimination.