Characterization of high-energy quasi-monoenergetic neutron energy spectra and ambient dose equivalents of 80-389Â MeV 7Li(p,n) reactions using a time-of-flight method

We completed a series of measurements on mono-energetic neutron energy spectra of the 7Li(p,n) reaction with 80-389-MeV protons in the 100-m time-of-flight (TOF) tunnel at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics cyclotron facility. For that purpose, we measured neutron energy spectra of the 80-, 100- and 296-MeV proton incident reactions, which had not been investigated in our previous studies. The neutron peak intensity was 0.9-1.1×1010 neutrons/sr/µC in the incident proton energy region of 80-389 MeV, and it was almost independent of the incident proton energy. The contribution of peak intensity of the spectrum to the total intensity integrated with energies above 3 MeV varied between 0.38 and 0.48 in the incident proton energy range of 80-389 MeV. To consider the correction required to derive a response in the peak region from the measured total responses of neutron monitors in the 100-m TOF tunnel, we proposed the subtraction method using energy spectra between 0° and 25°. The normalizing factor k against 25° neutron fluence to equalize it to 0° neutron fluence in the continuum region ranges from 0.74 to 1.02 depending on the incident proton energy and angle measured. Even without the TOF method, the subtraction method with the k factor almost decreases the response in the continuum region of a neutron spectrum against the total response of neutron monitors.