Preliminary Testing of a Proportional Counter for Neutron Spectroscopy With Helium-3

The He/sup 3/(n,p)T reaction can be utilized in a proportional counter for neutron-energy determination in the region 100 kev to 1 Mev. This has already been demonstrated and the reaction cross section in this energy region has been measured with a counter. For practical application of the counter as a spectrometer, such as in health physics work, it is desirable to increase the counter efficiency. A proportional counter utilizing an anticoincidence ring to reduce wall effect has been constructed for this purpose. Some preliminary tests of the proposed system are described. (auth