SCIENCE CHINA

Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy

• Research Paper • August 2010 Vol.53 No.8: 1453–1459
doi: 10.1007/s11433-010-4036-8

A comparison of n-γ discrimination by the rise-time and

zero-crossing methods
YAN Jie1,2*, LIU Rong2, LI Cheng1, JIANG Li2 & LU XinXin2
1
Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China;
2
Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China

Received December 3, 2009; accepted January 5, 2010; published online June 30, 2010

The n-γ discrimination performance of two experimental arrangements based on the rise-time method and the zero-crossing
method was compared for a 50.8 mm-diametered and 50.8 mm-high BC501A liquid scintillator coupled to a 50.8 mm-diame-
tered 9807B photomultiplier in this work. The low energy limitation of the detected neutron with different detector high
voltages and the figure of merit of the n-γ discrimination in four neutron energy regions (1–2 MeV, 0.75–1 MeV, 0.5–0.75
MeV and below 0.5 MeV) were studied by using the Am-Be neutron source. Under a time statistical model of the
photoelectron emission process in scintillation counters, the intrinsic capability of the n-γ discrimination performance under the
optimal condition was evaluated. The experimental results of the zero-crossing method demonstrate a better n-γ. discrimination
performance than those of the rise-time method, which is consistent with the calculated results.

rise-time method, zero-crossing method, n-g discrimination, time statistics analysis, BC501A scintillation detector
PACS: 29.40.Mc, 07.05.Tp

1 Introduction discrimination results shown there only revealed an integral

Organic liquid scintillation detectors of type NE213 and
BC501A are widely used in the integral benchmark experi-
ments for the nuclear data validation by using the neutron
time-of-flight method for its high detection efficiency and
excellent n-γ pulse shape discrimination (PSD) properties
[1–4]. The most common n-γ PSD electronic circuit ar-
rangement is based on the zero-crossing method. Some
commercial pulse-shape analyzer (PSA) modules based on
the rise-time method can serve this function. For the per-
formance of the n-γ discrimination impacts on the accuracy
of the neutron energy spectrum measurement, and for de-
tectors with different sizes [5,6], comparisons of n-γ dis-
crimination by zero-crossing and digital charge comparison
methods [7] have been made in the past. However, the n-γ
*Corresponding author (email: yanjie@mail.ustc.edu.cn)
effect above a certain neutron energy arising from the fact
that they just considered the low bias setting without a high
energy limitation. In this case, the high energy neutron and
gamma concealed the actual n-γ discrimination capability of
the low energy. Besides, some statistical models have been
built and studied since 1950s [8–13] not only for the
evaluation of scintillation materials but also for the optimi-
zation of PSD parameters and the comparison of PSD
methods. However, there is no report about the comparative
and quantitative study of the n-γ discrimination performance
between the rise-time method and the zero-crossing method
focused on the low energy region.
For the neutron energy region above 2 MeV, as the decay
time of the pulse shape produced by neutron and gamma
radiation has a large fraction of difference, it is relatively
easy to perform the n-γ discrimination. But in the low en-
ergy, especially below 1 MeV where the number of photo-
electron is small and statistical fluctuations are most often

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1454 YAN Jie, et al. Sci China Phys Mech Astron
the predominant factor, it is difficult to separate the neutron
and gamma with a high confidence level.
In this paper, the n-γ. discrimination performance of two
n-γ discrimination experimental arrangements based on the
rise-time method and zero-crossing method was compared.
The energy of interest was below 2 MeV with four energy
regions 1–2 MeV, 0.75–1 MeV, 0.5–0.75 MeV and below
0.5 MeV from the Am-Be neutron source. Moreover, the
statistical model described by Kuchnir [9] and Cao [13] was
adopted to evaluate the experimental results.
2 Experiment setup
The comparative study was carried out with the scintillation
detector composed of a 50.8 mm in diameter and 50.8 mm
high BC501A liquid scintillator coupled to a 50.8 mm di-
ameter 9807B photomultiplier with silicon oil. The liquid
scintillators of type BC501A are identical to early NE213
scintillators in both design and chemical composition [14],
and the photomultiplier is designed with a good sin-
gle-electron resolution (SER) and high pulsed linearity as a
plug-in replacement for the RCA 8575 [15].
The block diagrams of the two n-γ discrimination ex-
perimental arrangements with the recoil proton energy in-
formation added are presented in Figure 1. Both of them
were established by a set of ORTEC electronic instruments.
One is based on the rise-time method by using the commer-
cial PSA module ORTEC 552 [16], while the other is based
on the typical zero-crossing method. The dynode signal
from the scintillation detector for each of the two circuits is
divided into two branches after being amplified by the
Preamplifier. One branch is used for the n-γ discrimination
Figure 1 The block schemes of the two n-γ discrimination circuits. (a) is based on the rise-time method and (b) is based on the zero-crossing method.
August (2010) Vol. 53 No. 8
while the other is used to obtain the recoil proton energy
spectrum for the selection of neutron energy regions.
3 Experimental details
To make the selection of the interested neutron energy re-
gions, we first had to take the energy linear calibration of
the multi-channel analyzer (MCA) for the recoil proton en-
ergy spectrum measurement by using the channel number of
the half height of the Compton edge of 137Cs monoenergetic
gamma ray source as the maximum energy recoil electron
with assumption that the energy linear of the MCA is good
enough. Because of the nonlinear response of the scintillator
as a function of neutron energy, the selection of energy re-
gions was imposed on the electron, and the light output
function for transforming the electron energy to neutron
energy was taken from Klein and Neumann [17], as shown
in Figure 2. The neutron energy of interest (1–2 MeV,
0.75–1 MeV, 0.5–0.75 MeV and below 0.5 MeV) was ob-
tainable by calculating and adjusting the low-level dis-
criminator and upper-level discriminator of the PSA (Figure
1(a)) or of the TSCA (Figure 1(b)) associated with the value
of the neutron energy. To quantify the n-γ discrimination
capability in a given energy region, a figure of merit (FOM)
[18]:
Pn − Pγ
FOM = , (1)
FWHM n + FWHM γ
where Pn and Pγ are the channel numbers corresponding to
the peaks of the n-γ discrimination spectrum for neutron and
gamma respectively, FWHMn and FMWHγ are their full
 YAN Jie, et al. Sci China Phys Mech Astron August (2010) Vol. 53 No. 8 1455

Figure 4, respectively. It is shown that in the energy region

Figure 2 Light output function L(E) for electrons, protons and alpha
particles as determined for an NE213 scintillation detector, 5.08 cm in
diameter and length (after Figure 2 of Klein and Neumann [17]).
width at half maximum. All of them can be obtained by
fitting the n-γ discrimination spectrum with two Gaussian
functions.
As an example, in the case of high voltage of −1900 V,
the Compton recoil electron spectra of 137Cs monoenergetic
gamma ray source used to perform the energy calibration
and the n-γ discrimination spectra in the four neutron energy
regions for the two methods are shown in Figure 3 and
1–2 MeV, both of the two methods exhibit excellent n-γ
discrimination. However, along with the decrease of the
neutron energy, there is more overlap of the n-γ discrimina-
tion spectra. For the rise-time method with neutron energy
below 0.5 MeV, it is hard to see the peaks of the neutron
and gamma because they are superposed on each other en-
tirely. In contrast, for the zero-crossing method, although
the n-γ discrimination is better than the former in each en-
ergy region and the peaks of the neutron and gamma are
distinct, the overlap is too serious to obtain good n-γ dis-
crimination in the case of neutron energy below 0.5 MeV,
as summarized in Figure 4. For this reason, the value of the
FOM of the zero-crossing method in each energy region is
larger than that of the rise-time method, and the data fitting
with two Gaussion functions can not be performed for the
rise-time method in the energy region below 0.5 MeV. The
comparison of the FOM for the two experimental arrange-
ments in four energy regions is shown in Figure 5.
4 Time statistics analysis
Because both of the two n-γ discrimination methods utilizes

Figure 3 The Compton recoil electron spectra of 137Cs used to perform the energy calibration in the case of high voltage of −1900 V.

Figure 4 Comparison of the n-γ discrimination spectra in four neutron energy regions in the case of high voltage of −1900 V.
1456 YAN Jie, et al.
Figure 5 Comparison of the Figure of merit (FOM) in four neutron
energy regions in the case of high voltage of −1900 V.
the information of the pulse rise time, and the rise time is
proportional to the scintillation decay time, a statistical
model that describes the probability distribution of the rise
time introduced by Kuchnir and Cao. Under this model, the
intrinsic performance of the n-γ discrimination for the two
methods is evaluated and the experimental results are com-
pared. Due to their close implication to the problem we are
dealing with, the main conclusions are reported here; see
refs. [9,13] for the detailed information.
From an analytical point of view, the time profile of the
scintillation light pulse detected by the cathode of the pho-
tomultiplier in the case of NE213 and BC501A can be in-
troduced as the form:
1 ⎛ q1 − t /τ1 q2 − t /τ 2
p(t ) = ⎜ e + e
Q ⎝ τ1 τ2
where Q is the total light output used to normalize its area to
1 (proportional to total energy deposition), and qi and τ i
(i=1, 2) represent the light yield and the decay time constant
of fast and slow component, respectively. The probability
distribution of the time at which a pulse reaches the fraction
x of its maximum, is given by
e − n n n [1 − F (t )]n − j [ F (t )] j −1 p(t )
Pj , n (t )dt =
( j − 1)!(n − j )!
where n is the total number of emitted photoelectrons pro-
duced by a monoenergetic radiation, which is assumed to be
Poisson distribution, j is the number of photoelectrons cor-
responding to the fraction x. It is apparent that j = nx. The
Table 1 Characteristic parameters of the BC501A scintillator used in our calculation (from ref. [13])
Scintillator Excitation
n 3.94
BC501A
γ 3.36
Sci China Phys Mech Astron August (2010) Vol. 53 No. 8
definition of F(t) in eq. (3) is expressed by
t
F (t ) = ∫ p(t ′)dt ′. (4)
0
As the total photoelectron number n is proportional to the
energy deposition of radiation inside the scintillator, and the
number of photoelectrons per keV energy loss in the scin-
tillator for BC501A is about 1.7/keV [9], with the assump-
tion that the ratios of photons to neutrons in calculations are
to be one, the calculation results can predict the intrinsic n-γ
discrimination to be compared with the experimental results.
The corresponding parameters for the rise time distribution
calculation are listed in Table 1.
5 Results and discussion
5.1 The relations of the lowest energy of the detected
neutron with different detector high voltages
In our experiment, the high voltage of the detector was
changed from −1400 V every other 100 V to −1900 V.
Since the neutron energy of interest is below 2 MeV, the
low energy limitation of the detected neutron is an impor-
tant criterion to compare the performance of the two n-γ
discrimination methods. The relations of the lowest energy
of the detected neutron with different detector high voltages
are shown in Figure 6. The neutron energy is represented by
the equivalent electron energy. For the zero-crossing
method, the lowest energy of the detected neutron is de-
creased with the increase of the high voltage, and when the
high voltage exceeded as much as −1600 V, it is lower than
⎞
⎟, (2)
⎠
dt , (3)
Figure 6 The relations of detected neutron low energy limitation with
different detector high voltages.
τ1 (ns) τ2 (ns) q1 q2
47.1 0.527 0.473
24.6 0.556 0.444
 YAN Jie, et al. Sci China Phys Mech Astron
that of the rise-time method. For the rise-time method, the
lowest energy of the detected neutron is almost a constant
close to 40 keV electron energy after the high voltage ex-
ceeded −1500 V.
5.2 The relations of the FOM with different detector
high voltages in different neutron energy regions
Figures 7(a)–(d) are the results of the relations of the FOM
for the two n-γ discrimination methods with different de-
tector high voltages in different neutron energy regions. In
each energy region, the values of the FOM of the two n-γ
discrimination methods are almost the same along with the
high voltage varying from −1400 to −1900 V, whilst the
value of the FOM of the zero-crossing method is larger than
that of the rise-time method. In the energy region below 0.5
MeV, it is hard to carry out the fitting with Gaussian func-
tion, for the time distributions of neutron and gamma are
superposed on each other for the rise-time method, and this
is why only the result for the zero-crossing method is dis-
played in Figure 7(d). Furthermore, in this energy region,
because the lowest energy of the detected neutron is down
to about 0.1 MeV when the high voltage is −1900 V, a com-
plementary measurement in the neutron energy region of
0.25–0.5 MeV was performed and the value of FOM is
close to 1 as shown in Figure 6(d) marked by square.
Figure 7 The relations of the FOM with different detector high voltages in different neutron energy regions. (a) 1–2 MeV; (b) 0.75–1 MeV; (c) 0.5–0.75
MeV; (d) below 0.5 MeV.
August (2010) Vol. 53 No. 8 1457
5.3 The calculated results of the n-γ discrimination
from the time statistical analysis
According to the time statistical analysis in sec. 4, computer
codes based on the Mathematica software system are writ-
ten to implement the calculation procedure. For a fraction x
of the maximum equal to 0.9 and for the total number of
photoelectrons n in the range corresponding to the neutron
energy, the calculated results of the probability distribution
of the rise time for photon and neutron-induced scintillation
pulses in our detector are shown in Figure 8. The Compari-
son of the calculated results with the experimental results of
the two methods is also shown in Figure 9, where the values
of the FOM of the experimental results in each energy re-
gion are the average value of different high voltages. In
comparison, the rise-time method does not make a good n-γ
discrimination in each energy region, and the experimental
results of the zero-crossing method are close to the calcu-
lated results, whilst the value of the FOM of the calculated
results is slightly higher. The discrepancies evidently come
from four reasons. First, the parameters corresponding to
the decay of the scintillation light in our calculation are
from ref. [13] rather than the actual information of our de-
tector. Second, as the value of the transit time distribution of
the PMT can not be taken from the specifications of the
PMT, the influence contributed to this factor is ignored in
our calculation. Third, the electronic noise distributions of
1458 YAN Jie, et al. Sci China Phys Mech Astron
Figure 8 Calculated rise-time distributions of the photon and neutron-in-
duced scintillation pulse in a BC501A in the four energy regions.
Figure 9 Comparison of the FOM of the calculated results and the ex-
perimental results.
the two experimental arrangements are not considered.
Fourth, as the authors pointed out in ref. [9], it could be an
error to assume that the relation between the average actual
number in an individual pulse is given by Poisson statistics.
Consequently, our calculated results provide the intrinsic
n-γ discrimination performance under the ideal condition.
6 Conclusions
The low energy limitation of the detected neutron as a func-
tion of the detector high voltages and the FOM of the n-γ
discrimination by rise-time and zero-crossing methods in
four neutron energy regions below 2 MeV are compared in
this paper. In conclusion, we should like to emphasize the
following general points with regard to the n-γ discrimina-
tion performance for the rise-time and zero-crossing meth-
ods.
Firstly, although these two methods make use of the rise
time information of the pulse, the presented study shows
August (2010) Vol. 53 No. 8
clearly a superiority of n-γ discrimination method based on
the zero-crossing method compared to the rise-time method.
The effective separation between neutron and gamma is
down to about 0.25 MeV with the value of FOM close to 1
for the zero-crossing method.
Secondly, for the rise-time method, because the mini-
mum input threshold for the lower-level discriminator of the
PSA is 40 mV [16], the lowest energy of detected neutron
can only reach about 40 keV of equivalent electron energy
while the zero-crossing method can reach about 5 keV of
equivalent electron energy. An optimization work for the
design of electronic circuit of the PSA is needed in the fu-
ture for the specialized application in n-γ discrimination
below 1 MeV.
Finally, without considering the influence of the transit
time spread of the PMT and the electronic noise of the elec-
tronic circuits, the time statistical analysis has provided a
precise evaluation of the intrinsic performance for these two
n-γ discrimination methods. The experimental results of the
zero-crossing method are closer to the calculated results
than that of the rise-time method. The reasons for these dis-
crepancies between calculated results and experimental re-
sults were discussed in sec. 5.3. In the neutron energy
measurement, if the low energy specifically below 1 MeV is
concerned, from the FOM point of view, the zero-crossing
method arrangement is a much better choice than the
rise-time method.
The author would like to thank Prof. Cheng Yuan for the fruitful discus-
sions and comments on the details of the experiment arrangement, and
Wang Mei for the use of 137Cs gamma ray source and Am-Be neutron
source in the experiment.
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