A 16-ch module for thermal neutron detection using ZnS:${}^6$LiF scintillator with embedded WLS fibers coupled to SiPMs and its dedicated readout electronics

Abstract A scalable 16-ch thermal neutron detection system has been developed in the framework of the upgrade of a neutron diffractometer. The detector is based on a ZnS: 6 LiF scintillator with embedded WLS fibers which are read out with SiPMs. In this paper, we present the 16-ch module, the dedicated readout electronics, a direct comparison between the performance of the diffractometer obtained with the current 3 He detector and with the 16-ch detection module, and the channel-to-channel uniformity.