Development of a monoenergetic neutron field utilizing an accelerator deuteron beam

A monoenergetic neutron field is an attractive environment for neutron metrology and the development of novel neutron detectors. Deuterium–deuterium and deuterium–tritium (DT) reactions with an accelerated deuteron beam produce 2.5 and 14.8 MeV monoenergetic neutrons, respectively. The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) is developing a monoenergetic neutron field facility with an accelerator that generates a deuteron beam to establish monoenergetic neutron measurement standards. An electrostatic accelerator with a maximum high voltage of 400 kV and beam current from 0.5 to 500 μA from High Voltage Engineering Europa BV was installed. For a tritiated titanium or deuterated titanium target deposited at 250 μg/cm 2 on a 38 mm copper plate, a target chamber is developed by KRISS. The total neutron yield is limited to 5 × 10 8 n/s, which is the maximum allowed emission rate resulting from the shielding capacitance of a laboratory wall shield. The corresponding deuteron beam current of the DT reaction with the maximum emission rate is approximately 15 μA. Furthermore, various additional studies such as beam current monitoring, target temperature monitoring, air cooling for the target, and beam profile measurement have been performed for the stable generation of the monoenergetic neutron field.