A new position-sensitive thermal neutron detector based on boron-coated converters has been developed as an alternative to today’s standard \(^3\mathrm{He}\)-based technology for application to thermal neutron scattering. The key elements of the development are the boron-coated GEM foils (Sauli in Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A Accel Spectrom Detect Assoc Equip 386:531, 1997) that are used as a multi-layer neutron converter via the \(^{10}\mathrm{B}(n,\alpha )^7\mathrm{Li}\) reaction together with an efficient collection of the produced secondary electrons. This paper reports the test performed on a 3 layers converter prototype coupled to a GEMPix detector (Murtas in Radiat Meas 138:106421, 2020), carried out in order to study the possibility to produce a large-scale multi-layer neutron detector capable to reach high detection efficiency with high spatial resolution and able to sustain the high neutron flux expected in the new neutron spallation source under development like the ESS.

已开发出一种基于硼涂层转换器的新型位置敏感热中子探测器，以替代当今基于\(^3\mathrm{He}\)的标准技术，用于热中子散射。开发的关键要素是硼涂层 GEM 箔（Sauli in Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A Accel Spectrom Detect Assoc Equip 386:531, 1997），它通过\(^{ 10}\mathrm{B}(n,\alpha )^7\mathrm{Li}\)反应以及产生的二次电子的有效收集。本文报告了在与 GEMPix 探测器（Murtas in Radiat Meas 138:106421, 2020）耦合的 3 层转换器原型上进行的测试，该测试旨在研究生产能够检测的大型多层中子探测器的可能性。以高空间分辨率达到高探测效率，并能够维持正在开发的新中子散裂源（如 ESS）中预期的高中子通量。