Preparation and characterization of boron films used for boron-lined gaseous neutron detectors

Boron-lined gaseous neutron detectors are being widely used in neutron detection to replace 3 He proportional counters, and the boron film’s parameters comprise the key factors influencing the performance of such detectors. However, the method of characterizing boron film is relatively simple at present. In this study, boron films stuck to ultrathin glass substrate with different mass proportions of epoxy to natural boron (MPENBs) were prepared. A variety of characterization methods, including scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, white-light interferometry, and multiple tape tests, were used to test the boron films simultaneously, and the test results are discussed herein. Moreover, neutron imaging was conducted to analyze the uniformity of boron-10 atoms. These characterization results demonstrate that the optimized MPENB formulation is 0.16 with the boron atomic ratio of chemical elements (ARCE) at approximately 68.8% and surface roughness Sa = 1.457 μm and that the structure of boron film is uniform and fluffy, contributing to improving the boron-lined method.