Kinematic background discrimination methods using a fully digital data acquisition system for TOFOR

A fully digital, prototype data acquisition system upgrade for the TOFOR neutron time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at the JET experimental fusion reactor in Culham, England, has been constructed. This upgrade, TOFu (Time-of-Flight upgrade), enables digitization of associated time and energy deposition information from the TOFOR scintillator detectors, facilitating discrimination of spectral background due to unrelated neutron events based on kinematic considerations. In this publication, a kinematic background discrimination method is presented using synthetic data and validated with experimental results. It is found that an improvement in signal-to-background ratio of 500% in certain spectral regions is possible with the new DAQ system.