Scintillating fiber camera for neutron dosimetry in spacecraft

A scintillating fiber camera for three-dimensional imaging was newly develo ped for radiation dosimetry in spacecraft. The camera consists of a scintil lating fiber stack, an image intensifier unit and photomultipliers for trig gering events. The scintillating fiber stack has 100 scintillating fiber la yers. The layers are alternatively stacked up to be perpendicular to each o ther. The stack is coupled to a two-stage image intensifier and then couple d to a CCD camera for the track readout. Each fiber layer consists of 100 s cintillating fibers and the fiber stack composed of 100 layers leads us to a sensitive volume of 50 x 50 x 50 mm(3). Each fiber has a cross-section of 0.5 x 0.5 mm(2). It is found that the camera has the capability to clearly identify charged particles, neutrons and gamma -rays by observing individu al three-dimensional images of those tracks. The threshold energy for ident ification of neutrons and gamma -rays is 5-10 MeV for recoil proton energy when the coincidence signals from 2 photomultipliers are used as triggers a nd is expected to be 2-3 MeV when the triggers from either photomultiplier are used. The whole energy region for neutron dosimetry will be covered by the combination with the Bonner spheres for the energy region lower than si milar to 10 MeV. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.