CALIBRATION AND OPERATION OF A NEUTRON TIME-OF-FLIGHT SCINTILLATOR ARRAY ON NOVA

The Tion diagnostic is a 1020-channel scintillator array on the Nova l aser at Livermore. It measures the arrival time of single D-D or D-T n eutrons at 27 m from the target with time resolution of 4 ns. The effe ct of neutron scattering has been obtained from Monte-Carlo neutron tr ansport simulations and the scattered response is convolved with a Gau ssian source to fit the data. The data analysis has been checked using targets which produce roughly equal numbers of D-T and D-D counts. Th e temperature obtained from Tion and from a current-mode neutron time- of-flight detector are in agreement for neutron yields above 1 x 10(9) . (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.