Comparison of various pulse height unfolding methods used in fast neutron spectroscopy

Abstract A comparative study was performed among various pulse height unfolding codes used in fast neutron spectroscopy. Pulse height distribution measured in a liquid scintillator BC501A based detector was unfolded using FERDOR, MAXED, GRAVEL and RooUnfold. Spectra were measured for both poly-energetic neutron sources 252 Cf, 241 Am- 9 Be and quasi mono-energetic neutrons from 7 Li(p,n) 7 Be. The unfolded spectra obtained from different unfolding codes were compared to the reference spectrum measured using the time-of-flight method. Relative mean square deviation of the unfolded spectrum with respect to the time-of-flight/reference spectrum is found to be the lowest for GRAVEL in the neutron energy region 1–15 MeV. Energy resolution of the unfolded spectrum from GRAVEL is the lowest among all the methods.