Open Collections

The production of neutrons by secondary processes in the proton bombardment of deuterium

University of British Columbia

Several simple and rugged neutron detecting scintillation counters have been built. The counters consisted of many layered lucite and zinc, sulfide powder sandwiches placed on the end of Dumont 6292 photomultipliers. One of these counters was used to measure the yield and angular distribution of neutrons produced by the bombardment of heavy ice with 1.5 Mev protons (below the D(pn)2p threshold). The angular distribution of the neutrons was found to be somewhat anisotropic and to depend on target thickness, the anisotropy increasing with target thickness. It is proposed that the neutron production is due to a double process; deuterons after being struck by incident protons collide with further deuterons in the target producing D(dn)He³ neutrons. This proposal has been confirmed by comparison of the experimental results with calculations for thin and thick targets of the yield and angular distribution of neutrons to be expected from the double process. A further confirmation has been obtained experimentally by observing that the yield of neutrons is proportional to the square of the D₂0 concentration in mixed D₂O and H₂O targets.

Text

2012-02-06

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/40517

Physics

University of British Columbia

Graduate