Study on Liquid Methane Neutron Detector

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Research of nuclear science and engineering often requires the method for measuring high energy neutrons with high efficiency. Liquid methane has properties close to those of inert element such as liquid argon, and is supposed to work as liquid ionization chamber. In addition, methane contains hydrogen, and has a function to convert incident neutrons into recoil protons. Objective of this work is to fabricate a liquid methane ionization chamber, and to study its performance.The ionization chamber was cooled by the use of a compact refrigerator to make methane gas to liquid. It was found that the liquid methane generates scintillation light at neutron incidence. The light is usable as the trigger signal for data acquisition. The liquid methane ionization chamber successfully was confirmed to produce ionization signal for alpha particle incidence, when the liquid was purified to an acceptable degree. The result is hopeful for the use of liquid methane ionization chamber as neutron detector.