Pulse-shaping method for real-time neutron/gamma discrimination at low sampling rates

The Na I:Tl scintillator is an innovative material for dual-gamma-ray and neutron detection with a low ^(6)Li concentration.To achieve real-time n/γ discrimination,a zero-crossing time comparison algorithm based on trapezoidal pulse shaping was developed.The algorithm can operate efficiently at low sampling rates and was implemented on a single-probe portable digital n/γ discriminator based on a field-programmable gate array.The discriminator and Na I:Tl,^(6)Li detector were tested in a neutron-gamma mixed field produced by an ^(241)Am-Be neutron source to evaluate the performance of the algorithm.The figure of merits was measured as 2.88 at a sampling rate of 50 MHz,indicating that the discriminator with its embedded algorithm has a promising n/γ discrimination capability.Efficient discrimination at sampling rates of 40 and 25 MHz demonstrates that the capability of this method is not limited by low sampling rates.