Investigation of a GEM based neutron detector for the MoNA Collaboration

The technological advances of gas detector technologies, especially in the areas of micromegas and gas electron multipliers (GEMs), has enabled sub-mm position accuracy and pico-second timing resolution that have impacted greatly the fields of low and high energy nuclear physics research. The MoNA Collaboration is investigating the development of a Gas Photo-Multiplier (GPM) that will be coupled to plastic scintillators for a next generation neutron detector to complement the existing MoNA-LISA neutron array. Preliminary work includes measurement of the light attenuation in a 1 cm x 10 cm x 110 cm BC408 scintillator using an alpha source, comparison of the data with a Geant4 simulation and the construction and testing of a standard GEM detector. We will provide an update on the progress of this work.