Omnidirectional borehole detector for muography: Design and performance evaluation.

Muography using cosmic ray muons is a non-invasive and environmentally friendly imaging technique with comprehensive applicability across various fields such as mineral exploration, archaeology, and engineering, etc. Given characteristics of high penetration and broad energy spectrum of cosmic ray muons, three-dimensional density distribution of objects up to hundreds of meters can be well reconstructed. In mineral exploration and archaeology applications, conventional planar detectors are too large and usually deployed in spacious rooms like tunnels or outdoors, which seriously limits the deeper and broader applications of muography. A type of borehole muon detector is highly desired to address this. In the work, we introduce a novel borehole-type muography detector comprising annular and prismatic plastic scintillators, allowing for its deployment in boreholes. In the paper, the structural design of the detector is described in details and its performance is evaluated numerically and experimentally. Comprehensive investigation on components and on the system as a whole were conducted. According to our commissioning tests, the detector we propose has an omnidirectional field of view without blind spots, with an angular uncertainty of 27.4 mrad and a position uncertainty of 2.29 mm in the azimuthal direction, an angular uncertainty of 20.6 mrad and a position uncertainty of 10.31 mm in the zenithal direction. Detection efficiencies for both annular and prismatic scintillators were measured as 90.3 ± 0.53% and 92.27 ± 0.82%. In addition, an underground location was investigated, survival rate distributions being calculated from above-ground and underground measurements. The results indicate its capability to successfully address muography applications This novel borehole-type detector has the potential to address industry demand for lower-cost, more flexible muography solutions. • Achieves high angular resolution and full 360° omnidirectional detection within a compact borehole-sized format. • Maintains >90% detection efficiency across scintillator sections. • Utilizes a simplified single-ended readout design with fewer electronic channels. • Employs low-cost, easy-to-process plastic scintillators as the primary component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]