A Photoneutron source at the Daϕne Beam Test Facility of the INFN National Laboratories in Frascati: design and first experimental results

Abstract A pulsed neutron source has been realized at the Beam Test Facility (BTF) of the National Laboratory of Frascati, near Rome (Italy). Neutrons are produced sending high energy (510 MeV) electrons to impinge on an optimized Tungsten target. This kind of source produces neutrons with an energy spectrum that spans over more than 9 decades of energy (from few meV up to hundred of MeV), even if most of them have energy around 1 MeV. This source may be suitable for calibrating neutron sensitive devices with response in the MeV region, as well as it could be efectively used for material and nuclear science investigations. Neutron and photon rates and their spectra have been measured along well designed extraction lines, by using a Bonner Sphere Spectrometer (BSS). This works describes the experimental apparatus used to produce neutrons and the first experimental results: measured neutron and photon fluences are compared with Monte Carlo predictions performed with FLUKA and MCNPX, respectively.