Comparison of DT neutron and x-ray induced instrument response functions for a current-integrated neutron-time-of-flight detector*

Neutron time-of-flight (nTOF) detectors are widely used in inertial confinement fusion to infer kinetic effects and the bulk ion temperature within the plasma. Extracting these parameters from the digitized nTOF signal requires knowledge of the detector instrument response function (IRF). Traditionally the detector IRF has been measured using short-pulse x rays as a surrogate for a neutron response. For this work, the neutron IRF measured at Sandia National Laboratories’ Ion Beam Laboratory using single-event DT neutron interactions and the x-ray IRF measured at the OMEGA and MTW laser facilities at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics are compared for the same nTOF detector.