Mont-Geli, N.Tarifeño-Saldivia, A.Pallàs, M.Perea, A.Fraile Prieto, Luis MarioCortés, G.Briz Monago, José AntonioIllana Sisón, AndrésMartínez Nouvilas, VíctorUdías Moinelo, José Manuel2026-05-132026-05-132026-04-08Mont-Geli, Nil, et al. «Design and Commissioning of the miniBELEN Neutron Counter for the Study of ($$\alpha ,N$$) Reactions». The European Physical Journal Plus, vol. 141, n.o 4, abril de 2026, p. 381. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-026-07523-w.10.1140/epjp/s13360-026-07523-whttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/136686Centro de Micro-Análisis de Materiales (P01075, P01156, P01302) Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2021 FISDU 00368)The miniBELEN detector is a moderated neutron counter based on the use of 3He tubes and high-density polyethylene as moderator. The detector has been designed to have a neutron detection efficiency that is nearly independent from the initial neutron energy for (α,n) reactions with alpha-particle energies up to 15 MeV. In order to achieve that an innovative design methodology based on the use of cadmium neutron filters has been used. Monte Carlo calculations of the detector response have been validated using a 252Cf fission source. Measurements of the relatively well-known (α,n) thick target yields on aluminum have been found to be consistent with data from previous works. A method has been developed to correlate the counting rate ring ratios with the mean neutron energy and validated using previous time-of-flight measurements of the aluminum (α,n) spectra and with a 252Cf fission source.engAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/journal article2190-5444https://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-026-07523-whttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjp/s13360-026-07523-wopen access539.1539.12Reaction-ratesDetectorPhysicsEnergyYieldsPartículas2207 Física Atómica y Nuclear