Realize localization! High performance and large area boron carbide thin film for neutron detectors successfully developed in China

The reporter learned from the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that recently, the Chinese Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) detector team successfully prepared high-performance and large-area boron carbide film samples to meet the needs of neutron detectors by using the self-developed special device for magnetron sputtering large-area boron plating, and realized the localization of key technologies and devices of neutron detectors.With the upcoming launch of the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) Phase II project, the proposed neutron spectrometer urgently requires new neutron detectors with large area, high efficiency, and position sensitivity

The reporter learned from the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that recently, the Chinese Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) detector team successfully prepared high-performance and large-area boron carbide film samples to meet the needs of neutron detectors by using the self-developed special device for magnetron sputtering large-area boron plating, and realized the localization of key technologies and devices of neutron detectors.

With the upcoming launch of the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) Phase II project, the proposed neutron spectrometer urgently requires new neutron detectors with large area, high efficiency, and position sensitivity. How to prepare high-performance neutron conversion boron carbide thin films is the most core technology among them, and currently only a few developed countries such as the United States and Europe have mastered this technology.

In 2016, with the support of the State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Detection and Nuclear Electronics, the CSNS detector team, in cooperation with Professor Zhu Jingtao of Tongji University, began to develop a special device for magnetron sputtering large-area boron plating, with a coating thickness range of 0.01~5 microns, while supporting single and double side coating, radio frequency and DC coating. In June 2021, the device passed the acceptance of the key laboratory and was put into use.

A self-developed specialized device for magnetron sputtering large-area boron plating

After years of technical research and process trial production, the team has overcome key technologies that have a significant impact on coating quality, such as sputtering target material production, transition layer selection, and substrate surface treatment. Using this device, various specifications of boron carbide thin films have been prepared and successfully applied to ceramic GEM neutron detectors on multiple CSNS neutron spectrometers, achieving the localization of key neutron detector technologies and devices, This provides strong technical support for the development of new high-performance neutron detectors with larger areas in the future.

(Reporter from CCTV, Shuai Junquan, Chu Erjia)

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