Moslehi A, Raisali G, Lamehi M
Radiation Applications Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, AEOI, PO Box 11365-3486, Tehran, Iran.
Physics and Accelerators Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, AEOI, PO Box 11365-3486, Tehran, Iran.
Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2017 Apr 15;173(4):286-292. doi: 10.1093/rpd/ncw008.
To find appropriate substitutions for the expensive plastics of A-150 and rexolite used in the construction of thick gas electron multiplier (THGEM)-based tissue-equivalent proportional counters, in the present work, the responses of a THGEM-based microdosimetric detector made of A-150 and rexolite and three others composed of plexiglas (PMMA), polyethylene and polystyrene plastics as the wall materials have been compared. Lineal energy distribution, frequency-averaged lineal energy, dose-averaged lineal energy, mean quality factor and dose-equivalent for 0.1, 1 and 10 MeV neutrons and also for 241Am-Be neutrons are calculated using Geant4 simulation toolkit. Frequency-averaged lineal energy, dose-averaged lineal energy, mean quality factor and dose-equivalent values for all plastics are found similar. In addition, the response of an indigenously constructed microdosemeter with PMMA walls is also measured for 241Am-Be neutrons. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation predictions. Conclusively, it was found that the three considered plastics can be used as good candidates instead of A-150 and rexolite plastics in fast neutron microdosimetry.
