Growth of 6Li-enriched LiCl/BaCl2 eutectic as a novel neutron scintillator

In this study, Eu:6LiCl/BaCl2 with a high Li concentration was developed as a novel thermal neutron scintillator. Eu ions were doped as activators for the BaCl2 phase, and Eu:6LiCl/BaCl2 eutectics were grown via the vertical Bridgman–Stockbarger method in quartz ampoules (inner diameter = 4 mm). The Eu:6LiCl/BaCl2 eutectic exhibited a lamellar eutectic structure and optical transparency. The 400-nm emission due to the Eu2+ 4f–5d transition was observed in the BaCl2 phase by a cathode luminescence measurement. The light yield under neutrons was estimated to be over 20,200 photons/MeV. A pulse shape discrimination study was also performed using gamma and alpha-rays. The Eu:6LiCl/BaCl2 eutectic scintillator showed good potential of pulse shape discrimination.

Light yield and field dependence measurement in PandaX-II dual-phase xenon detector

The dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) is one of the most sensitive detector technology for dark matter direct search, where the energy deposition of incoming particle can be converted into photons and electrons through xenon excitation and ionization. The detector response to signal energy deposition varies significantly with the electric field in liquid xenon. We study the detector's light yield and its dependence on the electric field in the PandaX-II dual-phase detector containing 580 kg liquid xenon in the sensitive volume. From our measurements, the light yield at electric fields from 0 V/cm to 317 V/cm is obtained for energy depositions up to 236 keV.

Compositionally Disordered Doped with Cerium Crystalline Garnet Type Materials for Brighter and Faster Scintillations

Ce-doped tetracationic garnets (Gd, M)3Al2Ga3O12(M = Y, Lu) form a family of new multipurpose promising scintillation materials. The aim of this work was to evaluate the scintillation yield in the materials of quaternary garnets activated by cerium ions with partial isovalent substitution of the matrix-forming gadolinium ions by yttrium or lutetium ions.Materials were obtained in the form of polycrystalline ceramic samples, and the best results were shown by samples obtained from the raw materials produced by the coprecipitation method. It was found that ceramics obtained from coprecipitated raw materials ensure a uniform distribution of activator ions in the multi-cationic matrices, which enables the high light yield and fast scintillation kinetics of the scintillation. It was demonstrated that the superstoichiometric content of lutetium/gadolinium in the material is an effective method to suppress phosphorescence accompanied scintillation. For ceramics with the composition (Gd, Lu)3Al2Ga3O12 , a scintillation yield of more than 50.000 ph/MeV was achieved. The scintillation kinetics was measured to be close to the kinetics with a decay constant of 50 ns.In terms of the set of the parameters, the developed scintillation materials are close to the recently developed alkali halide materials LaBr3:Ce, GdBr3:Ce. Moreover, they have high mechanical hardness, are characterized by the absence of hygroscopicity, and are better adapted to the manufacture of pixel detectors used in modern devices for medical diagnostics.

SiPM dynamic range for CEPC scintillator-based electromagnetic calorimeter

A high-granularity scintillator calorimeter readout with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) is an electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) candidate for experiments at the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC). A critical design parameter of this ECAL candidate is the dynamic range of the SiPMs. This study investigates the SiPM dynamic range required for the CEPC scintillator ECAL. A model is developed on the basis of the operation principles of SiPMs to describe the response of an SiPM to light pulses within one recovery period by considering the cross-talk effect, photon detection efficiency, and number of pixels. The response curve of a 10000-pixel SiPM predicted by the model is consistent with the measured curve within 2% for an incident light pulse of up to 12000 photons. The intrinsic fluctuations of the SiPM response naturally exist in this model, and the correction of the saturation effect in the SiPM response is investigated. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation shows that the algorithm can restore the response linearity of an SiPM for an incident light pulse in which the number of photons is up to around six times the number of SiPM pixels. The model and correction program are implemented for full simulation of the ZH production Z → νν, H → γγ channel to evaluate the impact of the SiPM dynamic range of the CEPC scintillator ECAL on the reconstructed Higgs boson mass and the sensitivity to the Higgs signal in this channel. The results show that the CEPC scintillator ECAL equipped with no less than 4000 SiPM pixels and operated with a light yield of 20 photon-electrons per channel for a single minimum ionizing particle can meet the requirements for Higgs boson precision measurement in the di-photon channel at the CEPC.

Direct comparison of PEN and TPB wavelength shifters in a liquid argon detector

A large number of particle detectors employ liquid argon as their target material owing to its high scintillation yield and its ability to drift ionization charge over large distances. Scintillation light from argon is peaked at 128 nm and a wavelength shifter is required for its efficient detection. In this work, we directly compare the light yield achieved in two identical liquid argon chambers, one of which is equipped with polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) and the other with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) wavelength shifter. Both chambers are lined with enhanced specular reflectors and instrumented with SiPMs with a coverage fraction of approximately 1%, which represents a geometry comparable to the future large scale detectors. We measured the light yield of the PEN chamber to be 39.4$$\,\pm \,$$ ± 0.4(stat)$$\,\pm \,$$ ± 1.9(syst)% of the yield of the TPB chamber. Using a Monte Carlo simulation this result is used to extract the wavelength shifting efficiency of PEN relative to TPB equal to 47.2$$\,\pm \,$$ ± 5.7%. This result paves the way for the use of easily available PEN foils as a wavelength shifter, which can substantially simplify the construction of future liquid argon detectors.

Scintillation light increase of carbontetrafluoride gas at low temperature

Scintillation detector is widely used for the particle detection in the field of particle physics. Particle detectors containing fluorine-19 (19F) are known to have advantages for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) dark matter search, especially for spin-dependent interactions with WIMPs due to its spin structure. In this study, the scintillation properties of carbontetrafluoride (CF4) gas at low temperature were evaluated because its temperature dependence of light yield has not been measured. We evaluated the light yield by cooling the gas from room temperature (300 K) to 263 K. As a result, the light yield of CF4 was found to increase by (41.0 ± 4.0stat. ± 6.6syst.)% and the energy resolution was also found to improve at low temperature.

Fluorescence of pyrene-doped polystyrene films from room temperature down to 4 K for wavelength-shifting applications

In liquid argon-based particle detectors, slow wavelength shifters (WLSs) could be used alongside the common, nanosecond scale, WLS tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) for background mitigation purposes. At room temperature, pyrene has a moderate fluorescence light yield (LY) and a time constant of the order of hundreds of nanoseconds. In this work, four pyrene-doped polystyrene films with various purities and concentrations were characterized in terms of LY and decay time constants in a range of temperature between 4 K and 300 K under ultraviolet excitation. These films were found to have a LY between 35 and 50% of that of evaporated TPB. All light yields increase when cooling down, while the decays slow down. At room temperature, we observed that pyrene purity is strongly correlated with emission lifetime: highest obtainable purity samples were dominated by decays with emission time constants of ∼ 250–280 ns, and lower purity samples were dominated by an ∼ 80 ns component. One sample was investigated further to better understand the monomer and excimer emissions of pyrene. The excimer-over-monomer intensity ratio decreases when the temperature goes down, with the monomer emission dominating below ∼ 87 K.

Measurement of absolute light yield and quantum efficiency of LaBr3:Ce scintillator detector using SiPM

This brief communication presents our work to determine the absolute light yield and quantum efficiency of LaBr3:Ce scintillator by comparison and also by direct pulse measurement method using SiPM. The first part presents use of the simpler comparison method to determine the light yields of different scintillators using the known yield of NaI(Tl) as reference. In the second part we have determined the absolute light yield and quantum efficiency of LaBr3:Ce crystal by using a SiPM photo detector. Our measured value is in good agreement with the light yield reported by previous measurements using PMT and excitation fluorescence spectroscopy. Quantum efficiencies for scintillation detectors have been determined by using both PMTs and photo detectors, namely APDs by previous authors. This communication is possibly the first report on the determination of quantum efficiency of LaBr3:Ce using SiPM photo detector. The simple and effective method presented here would allow to determine the light yield of any scintillation detector.

Surface Structure and Electronic Properties of Lu3Al5O12

Lu3Al5O12 (LuAG) is a famous scintillator that has the advantages of high efficiency, high light yield, and fast decay after being doped with active ions. F centers (oxygen vacancies with two electrons) and antisite defects are the most important defects and can greatly affect the scintillation performance in the bulk materials. However, the surface defects that strongly affect the spectrum of a single crystal (SC) and single crystal film (SCF) and the effect on the electronic properties have not been investigated. In this context, we investigate the surface structural and electronic properties of Lu3Al5O12 using first-principles calculations. The Lu atoms are six-fold and seven-fold coordinated with the O atoms on the S1 and S2 surfaces. The surface oxygen vacancies and antisites have considerably lower formation energies than for the bulk. The oxygen vacancies in the bulk introduce the occupied states in the band gap. The surface electronic states are mainly located on the oxygen atoms and can be eliminated via oxygen vacancies.

Gd-admixed (Lu,Gd)AlO3 single crystals: breakthrough in heavy perovskite scintillators

We report a breakthrough concept for a bulk single crystal as a heavy aluminum perovskite scintillator, where due to bandgap engineering by a balanced Gd admixture in a Lu cation sublattice, the scintillation performance dramatically increases. In an optimized composition of (Lu, Gd)AlO3:Ce (LuGdAP:Ce), the light yield approaches 21,000 phot/MeV, which is close to that of classical but much less dense YAP:Ce and 50% higher than the best LuYAP:Ce reported in the literature. Moreover, contrary to LuYAP:Ce, the LuGdAP host maintains a high effective atomic number close to that of LuAP:Ce (Zeff = 64.9), which is comparable to commercial LSO:Ce. An enormous decrease in afterglow on the millisecond time scale and acceleration in the rise time of the scintillation response further increase the application potential of the LuGdAP host. The related acceleration of the transfer stage in the scintillation mechanism due to diminishing electron trap depths is proven by thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL). Furthermore, we quantitatively characterize and model the energy transfer processes that are responsible for the change in the photoluminescence and scintillation decay kinetics of Ce3+ in the LuGdAP matrix. Such an innovative (Lu, Gd)AP:Ce scintillator will become competitive for use in applications that require heavy, fast, and high light yield bulk scintillators.