A Compact Time-of-Flight Spectrometer of Neutrons in the 1–200-MeV Energy Range

A compact time-of-flight neutron spectrometer was developed to study the production of neutrons at large angles in the energy range of 1–200 MeV. This spectrometer is a part of the BM@N facility at the extracted heavy ion beam of the Nuclotron accelerator at JINR. Stilbene-based detectors with silicon photomultipliers are used for the neutron registration. The main features of the spectrometer are high time resolution, short flight path, complete suppression of gamma-ray background using pulse shape discrimination, operation in a strong magnetic field, and event-by-event recording of digital data. The spectrometer’s characteristics were studied in an experiment with a beam of xenon nuclei at the energy of 3.8 A GeV.