  Supernova (SN) neutrinos can excite the nuclei of various detector materials
beyond their neutron emission thresholds through charged current (CC) and
neutral current (NC) interactions. The emitted neutrons, if detected, can be a
signal for the supernova event. Here we present the results of our study of SN
neutrino detection through the neutron channel in lead ($^{208} {\rm Pb}$) and
iron ($^{56} {\rm Fe}$) detectors for realistic neutrino fluxes and energies
given by the recent Basel/Darmstadt simulations for a 18 solar mass progenitor
SN at a distance of 10 kpc. We find that, in general, the number of neutrons
emitted per kTon of detector material for the neutrino luminosities and average
energies of the different neutrino species as given by the Basel/Darmstadt
simulations are significantly lower than those estimated in previous studies
based on the results of earlier SN simulations. At the same time, we highlight
the fact that, although the total number of neutrons produced per kTon in a
iron detector is more than an order of magnitude lower than that for lead, the
dominance of the flavor blind NC events in the case of iron, as opposed to
dominance of $\nu_e$ induced CC events in the case of lead, offers a
complementarity between the two detector materials so that simultaneous
detection of SN neutrinos in a lead and a sufficiently large iron detector
suitably instrumented for neutron detection may allow estimating the fraction
of the total $\mu$ and $\tau$ flavored neutrinos in the SN neutrino flux and
thereby probing the emission mechanism as well as flavor oscillation scenarios
of the SN neutrinos.
