i-TED is an innovative detection system which exploits Compton imaging techniques to achieve a superior signal-to-background ratio in (\(n,\gamma \)) cross-section measurements using time-of-flight technique. This work presents the first experimental validation of the i-TED apparatus for high-resolution time-of-flight experiments and demonstrates for the first time the concept proposed for background rejection. To this aim, the \(^{197}\)Au(\(n,\gamma \)) and \(^{56}\)Fe(\(n, \gamma \)) reactions were studied at CERN n_TOF using an i-TED demonstrator based on three position-sensitive detectors. Two C\(_6\)D\(_6\) detectors were also used to benchmark the performance of i-TED. The i-TED prototype built for this study shows a factor of \(\sim \)3 higher detection sensitivity than state-of-the-art C\(_6\)D\(_6\) detectors in the 10 keV neutron-energy region of astrophysical interest. This paper explores also the perspectives of further enhancement in performance attainable with the final i-TED array consisting of twenty position-sensitive detectors and new analysis methodologies based on Machine-Learning techniques.

i-TED 是一种创新的检测系统，它利用康普顿成像技术，使用飞行时间技术在 ( \(n,\gamma\) ) 横截面测量中实现卓越的信背景比。这项工作首次对 i-TED 设备进行高分辨率飞行时间实验进行了实验验证，并首次展示了提出的背景抑制概念。为此，在 CERN n_TOF 研究了\(^{197}\) Au( \(n,\gamma \) ) 和\(^{56}\) Fe( \(n, \gamma \) ) 反应使用基于三个位置敏感探测器的 i-TED 演示器。两个 C \(_6\) D \(_6\)检测器也被用来对 i-TED 的性能进行基准测试。第i-TED原型用于该研究显示了内置的因子\（\ SIM \） 3更高的检测比状态的最技术的C灵敏度\（_ 6 \） d \（_ 6 \）在检测器的10千电子伏中子天体物理学感兴趣的能量区域。本文还探讨了通过由 20 个位置敏感探测器和基于机器学习技术的新分析方法组成的最终 i-TED 阵列进一步提高性能的前景。