A Micromegas-based gaseous detector for neutron-induced charged-particle reaction studies in nuclear astrophysics

The quasistellar neutron spectrum produced via ⁷Li (p, n)⁷Be reaction at a proton energy of 1.912 MeV has been extensively studied and employed reaction for neutron-induced reaction studies. We are working towards using this reaction at various proton energies from 1.9 MeV to 3.6 MeV to produce a neutron field at a temperature range of ∼ 1.5-3.5 GK to conduct measurements of neutron-induced charge particle reaction cross sections on various unstable nuclei at explosive stellar temperatures. In this paper, we are reporting our design and simulation study with regards to experimental set-up and a gaseous detector with a segmented Micromegas detector for conducting neutron-induced charge particle reactions studies for nuclei of astrophysics importance, for example, ²⁶Al(p, n)²⁶Mg, ²⁶Al(n, α)²³Na and ⁴⁰K(p, n)⁴⁰Ar, ⁴⁰K(n, α)³⁷Cl reactions. We plan to perform our experiments with a 10-μA proton beam at the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt facility (PTB, Germany), with a Micromegas-based gaseous detector under construction as discussed in the paper.