The Investigation of Neutron Interactions with HfB₂ – A Simulation Study

Abstract

HfB₂ with excellent thermal and mechanical properties have attracted attention to discover its radiation properties for use fusion facilities. Geant4 has been used to simulate HfB₂ neutron interaction study. For this purpose a virtual experiment has been performed to examine suitability of HfB₂ as a neutron bombardment target. The low energy thermal neutrons produce a large number of alpha particles. The α particles ratio varies tremendously up to 1.8 MeV of α energy. For 10 MeV neutrons the α particles spectrum follows a flat trend over 5 MeV α particles energies. The low energy thermal neutrons also produce high energy prompt gamma rays up to 20 MeV. The backscattered neutron and forward scattered neutron spectrum has been studied.

Keywords:

• HfB₂
• Geant4
• Thermal neutron
• High energy neutron
• Prompt gamma