Eur. Phys. J. A (2013) 49: 9
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2013-13009-8

Special Article - Tools for Experiment and Theory

An endoscopic detector for ultracold neutrons

¹ Laboratory for Particle Physics, Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland
² Institute for Particle Physics, Zürich, Switzerland
³ Regis University, 80221, Denver, CO, USA
⁴ Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire, Université de Caen, CNRS/IN2P3, Caen, France

^* e-mail: bernhard.lauss@psi.ch

Received: 14 May 2012
Revised: 18 October 2012
Accepted: 19 December 2012
Published online: 21 January 2013

Abstract

A new versatile detector for ultracold neutrons (UCN) has been built and operated which combines multi-pixel photon counters and GS10 lithium-doped scintillators. Such detectors can be very small and can be used to monitor UCN inside storage vessels or guides with negligible influence (of order 10⁻⁶ on the UCN intensity itself. We have shown that such detectors can be used in a very harsh radiation environment of up to 200Gy/h via the addition of a 4m long quartz light guide in order to place the radiation-sensitive photon counters outside the hot zone. Additionally we have measured the UCN storage times in situ in this harsh environment.