The flexible embedded-fiber neutron detector

We present a novel area-detector design, the flexible embedded-fiber detector (FEFD), which combines high-efficiency, low-cost, and very simple signal processing. It consists of wavelength-shifting fibers embedded in a zinc-sulfide lithium-fluoride-based scintillator and a physically flexible binder that allows the detecting surface to be wrapped into circular paths, so that each fiber is concentric with a single Debye-Scherrer cone. The FEFD design has been investigated via Monte Carlo simulations and by efficiency measurements performed using the CHEX instrument at the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source.