Unveiling secondary particle generation in a SONTRAC detector through GEANT4 simulations

SOlar Neutron TRACking (SONTRAC) is a detector concept based on a bundle of plastic scintillators by aiming at tracking the solar neutrons through the generation of the secondary particles such as protons from the (n, np) and (n, p) processes. In this study, in addition to the particle population, the energy spectra of the secondary particles including protons, gamma rays, electrons, alphas, and ions that are produced either due to the interaction between the fast neutrons and a SONTRAC detector or through the interplay between the secondary particles and the detector components are determined by means of GEANT4 simulations. The detector geometry in the present study consists of 34$\times$34 Kuraray Y11-200(M) fibers, the composition of which includes polystyrene for the fiber core, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) for the first clad, and fluorinated PMMA for the second clad. The current fiber bundle is irradiated with a planar vertical neutron beam of 0.2$\times$0.2 cm$^{2}$ by using an energy list composed of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 MeV where the number of incident neutrons is $10^5$, and it is first revealed that a non-negligible number of secondary protons are generated by the fast neutron bombardment; however, the population of these secondary protons is still low compared to the incident beam, i.e. in the order of $10^3$. Secondly, it is also observed that the energy spectrum of secondary protons exhibits a decreasing trend that is limited by the kinetic energy of incident neutrons. Additionally, the range of the secondary protons along with the deposited energy is computed, and it is demonstrated that a significant portion of the generated protons lose their entire energy and stop within the present SONTRAC detector. Finally, a 34$\times$34 pixel grid detector is introduced on each side of the fiber bundle to collect the optical photons produced from the energy deposition in the scintillation fibers, and the trajectory of the secondary protons on the pixel grid is shown by using a fast neutron beam of 100 MeV.