Improving 22Ne(a,n) measurements with Liquid 3-He neutron detection

We explore a possibility of a liquid 3-He-based instrument to detect neutrons emitted from 22Ne(a,n) with much higher efficiency than previously realized. Because of the status of the 22Ne(a,n) reaction as a lynchpin of the s-process we hope that this kind of measurement will serve to clarify the low-energy behavior of this and other similar reactions. Our new liquid 3-He concept allows smaller detectors with neutron detection efficiencies as much as a factor of 164 times greater than traditional gaseous 3-He detectors. The expense of this efficiency boost is cryogenic operation around 1K; we will discuss the logistics of deploying this sort of detector in a nuclear beam environment.