Dosimetry Methods of Fast Neutron Using the Semiconductor Diodes

Semiconductor detectors based on a silicon pin diode are frequently used in the detection of different nuclear radiations. For the detection and dosimetry of fast neutrons, these silicon detectors are coupled with a fast neutron converter. Incident neutrons interact with the converter and produce charged particles that can deposit their energy in the detectors and produce a signal. In this study, three methods are introduced for fast neutron dosimetry by using the silicon detectors, which are: recoil proton spectroscopy, similarity of detector response function with conversion function, and a discriminator layer. Monte Carlo simulation is used to calculate the response of dosimetry systems based on these methods. In the different doses of an ²⁴¹Am-Be neutron source, dosimetry responses are evaluated. The error values of measured data for dosimetry by these methods are in the range of 15–25%. We find fairly good agreement in the ²⁴¹Am-Be neutron sources.