Passive detection of special nuclear material (SNM) at long range or under heavy shielding can only be achieved by observing the penetrating neutral particles that it emits: gamma rays and neutrons in the MeV energy range. The ultimate SNM standoff detector system would have sensitivity to both gamma and neutron radiation, a large area and high efficiency to capture as many signal particles as possible, and good discrimination against background particles via directional and energy information. Designing such a system is a daunting task. Using timemodulated collimators could be a transformative technique leading to practical gamma-neutron imaging detector systems that are highly efficient with the potential to exhibit simultaneously high angular and energy resolution. A new technique using time encoding to make a compact, high efficiency imaging detector was conceived. Design considerations using Monte Carlo modeling and the construction and demonstration of a prototype imager are described.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗