A high-resolution two-dimensional 3He neutron MSGC with pads for neutron scattering experiments

High-resolution neutron imaging detectors are required for future high-intensity neutron sources such as the J-PARC project in Japan. We are developing a high-resolution gaseous neutron detector by using the microstrip gas chamber (MSGC) with floating-pad readout method. In this paper, we describe the neutron detector performance obtained with this MSGC and the readout method. For a 3 cm×3 cm MSGC filled with 5 bar CF4 and 0.5 bar 3He, we could achieve a measured position resolution of 0.6 mm (FWHM) including the beam size and the parallax error.