POSITION-SENSITIVE SCINTILLATOR DISKS FOR INTERMEDIATE AND HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRON SPECTROSCOPY

A position sensitive detector made up of thin discs of NE102 scintillating material is proposed for the detection of neutrons emitted in intermediate and high energy heavy ion reactions (0.1 less-than-or-equal-to E(n) less-than-or-equal-to 3 GeV). Positions and time of "hits" are determined by measuring the different times at which light reaches N photomultiplier tubes placed around each disc at the vertices of a regular polygon. A new method, based on Multiple Elliptical Coordinate Systems (MECS), is developed to linearize equations correlating signal times to coordinates and time of hit.