A Data Acquisition System for $\nu$-SNS Development

The $\nu$-SNS project at the Spallation Neutron Source aims to study neutrino-nucleus interactions important for understanding nuclear structure and astrophysics. Understanding the neutron background produced by the 1 GeV proton beam of the SNS is crucial to designing the shielding and detectors for $\nu$- SNS. To this end a facility is being constructed to study the neutron backgrounds at the SNS. In order to process data from scintillation detectors a LabVIEW\footnotemark[1] program was written. This program communicates with CAMAC based ADC modules via a GPIB crate controller and a USB interface. Three of the ADCs receive gates to store information from different time intervals for neutron-gamma discrimination. The fourth ADC stores TAC signals with neutron TOF information. The LabVIEW\footnotemark[1] program creates spectra that can be used to identify neutrons and gamma rays. Measurements with neutron and gamma sources were performed to study the effectiveness of different techniques of neutron-gamma discrimination. \footnotetext[1]{LabVIEW is a trademark of National Instruments Corporation.}