The wedge strip anode （WSA） has been widely used in 2-D positiomsensitive detectors. A circular WSA with an effective diameter of 52 mm is successfully coupled to a tripe gas electron multiplier （GEM） detector through a simple resistive layer. A spatial resolution of 440 μm （FWHM） is achieved for a 10 kVp X-ray using 1 atm Ar：CO2=70：30 gas. The simple electronics of only three channels makes it very useful in applications strongly requiring simple interface design, e.g. sealed tubes and high pressure detectors.
Using the technique of high-temperature melting, a new Er3＋/Yb3＋ co-doped fluorophosphate glass was prepared. The absorption and fluorescence spectra were investigated in depth. The effect of Er3＋ and Yb3＋ concentration on the spectroscopic properties of the glass sample was also discussed. According to the Judd Ofelt theory, the oscillator strength was computed. The lifetime of 4113/2 level （t-m） of Er3＋ ions was 8.23 ms, and the full width at half maximum of the dominating emission peak was 68 nm at 1.53 μm. The large stimulated emission cross section of the Er3＋ was calculated by the McCumher theory. The spectroscopic properties of Er3＋ ion were compared with those in different glasses. The full width at half maximum and σe are larger than those of other glass hosts, indicating this studied glass may be a potentially useful candidate for high-gain erbium-doped fiber amplifier.
An event-counting thermal neutron imaging detector based on 3 mol % nattGd2O3-doped micro-channel plate （MCP） has been developed and tested. A thermal neutron imaging experiment was carried out with a low flux neutron beam. Detection efficiency of 33% was achieved with only one doped MCP. The spatial resolution of 72μ m RMS is currently limited by the readout anode. A detector with larger area and improved readout method is now being developed.
A novel thermal neutron collimator was successfully fabricated by coating the inner surface of the capillary plate （CP） with gadolinium oxide using atomic layer deposition （ALD） technology. This CP-based collimator is efficient and compact. A numerical model is presented in the paper to estimate the main performance characteristics of the collimator and to optimize the design for specific applications. According to the results of the calculation based on currently available CPs, the FWHM of the collimator’s rocking curve can be smaller than 0.15 while suppressing more than 99.9% of the incident thermal neutrons on the double wings of the curve. Such a coated CP is as thin as 1.25 mm or even thinner, providing high angular resolution with good transmission in a very limited space.
