Neutron imaging with the XPAD3-S hybrid pixel detector

The X-ray photon counting hybrid pixel camera XPAD3-S is a promising detector for small animal X-ray radiography and tomography. The increasing interest in neutron imaging as a complementary approach to X-ray imaging motivates the study of the potentialities of this device for neutrons. To investigate this issue, we have studied the response of XPAD3-S to alpha particles and cold neutrons. The neutron detection was obtained with passive converters placed in front of the sensor. This choice permits to easily assemble 2D neutron sensitive imagers without size constraints; it penalizes however the detector efficiency with respect to other solutions. In this paper, we first analyze the detector response to alpha particles under several conditions, then we investigate its imaging performances and its detection efficiency for cold neutrons. Finally, we present the first XPAD3-S neutron tomography. Most of the results are validated by Monte Carlo simulations that will also permit to extrapolate the detector response to thermal neutrons.