Research on design of a quasi-monoenergetic neutron beamline in the range of 30 ∼ 50 MeV

Abstract As the research work about irradiation effect and neutron measurement requires high-energy neutron with the development in the fields of space exploration, medical treatment and high-energy physics investigation, a beamline of quasi-monoenergetic neutron in the range of 30 ∼ 50 MeV based on a proton cyclotron with a maximum energy of 50 MeV is under construction and preparation. We studied the design of this quasi-monoenergetic neutron beamline with a focus on target chamber and collimator. Comprehensive comparison on characters of thermodynamic and nuclear physics between lithium and beryllium was conducted, and lithium was chosen as target material by better performance on quasi-monoenergetic neutron peak. Relevant parametric simulations of lithium thickness were carried out in consideration of efficiency and quality of neutron generation which shows the change on height and width of quasi-monoenergetic neutron peak. Energy loss of incident proton caused by titanium film and argon gas was estimated to provide a reference for the mechanical design of target chamber. Evaluation has been done to show the variation of neutron spectra and fluxes at different positions from the target along with collimators of different lengths, and the collimator length was determined to be 2 m in view of flux and ratio of quasi-monoenergetic neutron peak. All work provides a data reference for the building and operation of the quasi-monoenergetic neutron beamline.