ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the growth of zinc oxide (ZnO) scintillators for application in neutron detectors. It presents an overview of the theoretical basis for neutron detection and neutron-versus-gamma discrimination. The chapter addresses the ZnO crystal growth techniques with particular emphasis on bulk melt growth and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. It discusses the effect of dopants on ZnO scintillator growth and performance. ZnO offers a material that is in many ways superior to the current state of the art neutron detectors. The threat of a terrorist’s use of nuclear weapons became the primary concern following the Soviet Union’s collapse. A number of passive and active neutron detection systems have been proposed to exploit this. A passive neutron detection system is merely an array of gamma and neutron detectors that can have sophisticated software to interpret the data collected by the detectors.
