Position-sensitive detection of thermal neutrons by the combination of Si-detectors with Gd-converter foils

With our work we want to demonstrate that position-sensitive silicon detectors, in combination with gadolinium foil converters, can successfully be used for the detection of thermal neutrons. We set up and tested different detector systems. Starting with a single diode and conventional electronics we determined the efficiency of the Si-Gd- Detector for different neutron wavelengths for both natural Gd and 157Gd as converter. As a next step, we constructed a 16 channel system consisting of a 1D Si-strip detector with 1 mm pitch of strips and integrated readout electronics with self-triggering capability. Encouraged by the results obtained, we started development of a 2D system. We increased the position resolution, as well as the number of channels, and produced a 2D device based on a pad detector with 300 300micrometers 2 pads.