Fast Neutron Imaging with Semiconductor Nanocrystal Scintillators

Kyle McCall^a^,^b, Kostiantyn Sakhatskyi^a^,^b, Eberhard Lehmann^c, Bernhard Walfort^d, Adrian Losko^e, Federico Montanarella^a^,^b, Maryna Bodnarchuk^a^,^b, Franziska Krieg^a^,^b, Yusuf Kelestemur^a^,^b^,^f, David Mannes^c, Yevhen Shynkarenko^a^,^b, Sergii Yakunin^a^,^b, Maksym Kovalenko^a^,^b

^aDepartment of Chemistry and Applied Bioscience, ETH Zürich, CH-8093 Switzerland, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg, 1, Zürich, Switzerland

^bEmpa, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland, Ueberlandstrasse, 129, Dübendorf, Switzerland

^cPaul Scherrer Institut, Villigen PSI, 5232, Switzerland, Forschungsstrasse 111, Villigen, Switzerland

^dRC Tritec Ltd., Teufen, 9053, Switzerland, Speicherstrasse, 60A, Teufen, Switzerland

^eForschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz MaierLeibnitz, Lichtenbergstraße 1, Garching, Germany

^fDepartment of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Atilim University, Kizilcasar Mahallesi, Ankara, Turkey

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting 2021 (NFM21)

#PerNC21. Perovskites II: Synthesis, Characterization, and Properties of Colloidal

Online, Spain, 2021 October 18th - 22nd

Organizers: Maksym Kovalenko, Ivan Infante and Lea Nienhaus

Poster, Kostiantyn Sakhatskyi, 265
Publication date: 23rd September 2021

ePoster:

Fast neutrons offer high penetration capabilities for both light and dense materials due to their comparatively low interaction cross-sections, making them ideal for the imaging of large-scale objects such as as-built plane turbines, for which X-rays or thermal neutrons do not provide sufficient penetration. However, inefficient fast neutron detection limits the widespread application of this technique. Traditional phosphors such as ZnS:Cu embedded in plastics are utilized as scintillators in recoil proton detectors for fast neutron imaging. However, these scintillation plates exhibit significant light scattering due to the plastic–phosphor interface along with long-lived afterglow (on the order of minutes), and therefore alternative solutions are needed to increase the availability of this technique. Here, we utilize colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) in hydrogen-dense solvents for fast neutron imaging. The light yield, spatial resolution, and neutron-vs-gamma sensitivity of several chalcogenide (CdSe and CuInS2)-based and perovskite halide-based NCs are determined, with only a short-lived afterglow (below the order of seconds) observed for all of these NCs. FAPbBr3 NCs exhibit the brightest total light output at 19.3% of the commercial ZnS:Cu(PP) standard, while CsPbBrCl2:Mn NCs offer the best spatial resolution at ∼2.6 mm.

References:

[1] McCall K.M. et all. Fast Neutron Imaging with Semiconductor Nanocrystal Scintillators. ACS Nano 2020, 14, 14686−14697

Acknowledgements:

We acknowledge RC Tritec AG and ETH+ Project SynMatLab for financial support of the project. Also, we thank Dr. Markus Strobl and Dr. Dmitry N. Dirin. for fruitful discussions, R. Schütz for the experimental setup support at the NECTAR beamline, as well as Dipl. Ing. Armin Kriele for on-site chemistry laboratory support.

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