Abstract
Beam monitors are an important diagnostic tool in neutron science facilities. Present beam monitors use either ionization chambers in integration mode, which are slow and have no timing information, or pulse counters which can easily be saturated by high beam intensities. Neutron beam monitors indicate the number of neutrons incident on a scattering sample and allow neutron experimental data to be analyzed even when the source strength varies with time. At high flux neutron scattering facilities, neutron beam monitors with very low efficiency (10-5) are presently selected to keep the counting rate within a feasible range, even when a higher efficiency would improve the counting statistics and yield a better measurement of the incident beam. In this work, we report on a high count rate neutron beam monitor which also offers position sensitivity to provide a beam profile. This beam monitor offers good timing (less than 1µs) in addition to position resolution and will therefore improve the counting statistics at neutron energies up to 10 eV and allow moderator studies. The detector’s main characteristics will be presented including its background rate, its count rate capability which is an order of magnitude higher than present counting monitors, and its efficiency for thermal neutrons.
