Imaging neutron capture cross sections; i-TED proof-of-concept and future prospects based on Machine-Learning techniques

Babiano-Surez, V.*; Harada, Hideo   ; Kimura, Atsushi   ; 132 of others*

i-TED is an innovative detection system which exploits Compton imaging techniques to achieve a superior signal-to-background ratio in (n,) cross-section measurements using time-of-flight technique. This work presents the first experimental validation of the i-TED apparatus for high resolution time-of-flight experiments and demonstrates for the first time the concept proposed for background rejection. To this aim, the Au(n,) and Fe(n,) reactions were studied at CERN n_TOF using an i-TED demonstrator based on three position-sensitive detectors. The i-TED prototype built for this study shows a factor of about 3 times higher detection sensitivity than traditional detectors in the 10 keV neutron-energy region. This paper explores also the perspectives of further enhancement in performance attainable with the final i-TED array consisting of twenty position-sensitive detectors and new analysis methodologies based on Machine-Learning techniques.