Simulation of the Effect of Neutron Radiation on the Caesium Lead Bromide

Zhang, Zhongming and Aspinall, Michael D. (2022) Simulation of the Effect of Neutron Radiation on the Caesium Lead Bromide. In: 2021 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference Record, NSS/MIC 2021 and 28th International Symposium on Room-Temperature Semiconductor Detectors, RTSD 2022. 2021 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference Record, NSS/MIC 2021 and 28th International Symposium on Room-Temperature Semiconductor Detectors, RTSD 2022 . Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., JPN. ISBN 9781665421140

Abstract

Researches on caesium lead bromide (CsPbBr3) demonstrated that it could be used as a scintillator or direct detector for radiation detection. Exploring the combination of caesium lead bromide and radiation-resistant semiconductors for gamma and neutron detection in the nuclear reactor core is a new research direction. The radiation resistance of CsPbBr3 will determine its suitability as a radiation detection material for high-intensity radiation environments such as in reactor core monitoring. To demonstrate the radiation-resistant performance of the caesium lead bromide, this research studied the effects of neutron irradiation with different energy levels on CsPbBr3 (1 eV, 1 keV, and 1 MeV). Geant4 is used to obtain the PKA (Primary Knock-on Atoms) energy spectrum of CsPbBr3 under neutron irradiations. These data were used by Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) to simulate the distribution of vacancies and interstitial atoms at the molecular level of the material. The vacancy formation energy for CsPbBr3 was studied as well by LAMMPS. The research will contribute to further study the performance changes of caesium lead bromide under neutron irradiation to verify the possibility of using it for radiation-resistant reactor core gamma and neutron detectors.