Issue |
EAS Publications Series
Volume 53, 2012
CYGNUS 2011: Third International Conference on Directional Detection of Dark Matter
|
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Page(s) | 173 - 181 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eas/1253021 | |
Published online | 15 February 2012 |
F. Mayet and D. Santos (eds)
EAS Publications Series, 53 (2012) 173-181
Production and measurement of neutron reference fields : the AMANDE facility and MIMAC prototype as neutron detection system
1
Laboratoire de Métrologie et de Dosimétrie des Neutrons, Institut
de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, 13115
Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance,
France
2
Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Université
Joseph Fourier Grenoble 1, CNRS/IN2P3, INPG 53, avenue des Martyrs, 38026
Grenoble Cedex,
France
The AMANDE facility produces mono-energetic neutron fields from 2 keV to 20 MeV with a metrological quality (Gressier et al. 2004). To be considered as a standard facility, fluence and energy distributions of neutron fields have to be mastered, i.e. measured by primary detector standards. For this purpose, a new gaseous Time Projection Chamber (μTPC) is being developed within the MIMAC project devoted to directional Dark Matter search (Billard et al. 2010). The μTPC is dedicated to measure neutron fields from 2 keV up to 1 MeV. The measurement strategy requires track reconstruction of recoiling nuclei down to a few keV, which can be achieved with low pressure gaseous detectors. Hence the energy must be measured precisely and the track of the recoiling nucleus must be 3D reconstructed. This is achieved with a low pressure micropattern gaseous detector (a pixelized bulk micromegas) equipped with a self triggered electronics able to perform the anode sampling at a 50 MHz frequency. Methods to measure fluence and neutron energy with the TPC have been described.
© EAS, EDP Sciences 2012