We measured signals of low amplitudes originating from cosmic rays, using two rectangular-block scintillation detectors at various positions. The signals were analyzed by a slightly modified signal analyzer from project 'MuonLab', designed to measure the lifetime and velocity of muons from cosmic radiation in high school education. In our experiment we focused on the possibilities of the apparatus to measure the time difference 'deltatime (DT)' between signals in two scintillation detectors and the signal amplitude 'pulse height (PH)' of the signal in one detector. We performed measurements in two arrangements: first vertical, detectors parallel and above each other, second horizontal, detectors parallel and next to each other. We observed that in both the vertical and horizontal arrangements, low-amplitude signals from cosmic rays in the two detectors showed unexpected coincidences. Under normal experimental conditions these effects were not observed because the amplification in the photomultiplier (PMT) as well as the threshold voltage were intentionally chosen to avoid noise and excessively high count rates. The rate at which the coincidences occur is very small, more than a thousand times smaller than the count rates of the individual detectors. However, the measurement of the deltatime spectrum appears to be a sensitive way to detect the presence of these rare and unexpected effects. The time differences between the signals at the two analyzer inputs were measured with a resolution of 0.5 ns and the pulse height measurement had a resolution of approximately 8 mV. It is estimated that the low-amplitude signals involved in the coincidences must respond to energy absorptions of the order of 100 keV in the scintillator material.
A neutron time projection chamber can locate the approximate direction of a neutron hot spot with high efficiency and a 4π field of view. The angular resolution can be significantly improved by adding several plastic scintillation detectors and using coincidence events. The specific performances of such a coincidence imaging system are studied based on theoretical calculations and experimental results. The calculated value of the angular resolution is approximately 2° for the current system, which agrees well with the experimental results and sets an upper limit for the angular resolution of t…
First observation of liquid xenon scintillation due to alpha-particles and gamma-rays with a large area avalanche photodiode immersed in the liquid is reported. An energy resolution of 10% (FWHM) and a coincidence time resolution of less then 1 ns (FWHM) were measured with 5.5 MeV alpha-particles and 511 keV gamma-rays, respectively. The quantum efficiency of the photodiode for xenon scintillation light (wavelength 178 nm) is estimated to be ~100%.
We have measured the energy dependence of the liquid xenon (LXe) scintillation yield of electrons with energy between 2.1 and 120.2keV, using the Compton coincidence technique. A LXe scintillation detector with a very high light detection efficiency was irradiated with 137Cs γ rays and the energy of the Compton-scattered γ rays was measured with a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector placed at different scattering angles. The excellent energy resolution of the HPGe detector allows the selection of events with Compton electrons of known energy in the LXe detector. We find that the scintillatio…
In the evaluation of novel scintillators, it is important to ensure that the spectrum of the light emitted by the scintillator is well matched to the response of the photomultiplier. In attempting to measure this spectrum using radioactive sources, it is found that so few photons are emitted per scintillation event that conventional spectroscopic techniques cannot easily be used. A simple photon counting technique is presented, using two photomultipliers operated in coincidence, the one viewing the scintillator directly, while the other views it through a monochromator. This system allows the …
A new method for directional fast neutron detection is proposed based on a neutron time projection chamber (TPC) and position-sensitive plastic scintillation detectors. The detection system can efficiently locate the approximate location of a hot spot with 4π field-of-view using only the neutron TPC. Then, the system generates a high-resolution image of the hot spot using selected coincidence events in the TPC and the scintillation detectors. A prototype was built and tested using a Cf-252 source. An efficiency of 7.1x10-3 was achieved for fast searching. The angular resolution was 7.8° (full …
In recent years the scintillation mechanism of inorganic crystals has been extensively investigated in different studies. The main issues are the non-proportionality mechanism of the light response versus energy and its connection with the shaping time used for the scintillation signals. In this study the Compton coincidence technique has been used to measure the relative non-proportionality of three crystals: CdWO$_{4}$, BGO, and NaI(Tl). To test the non-proportionality dependence on shaping time, the preamplified scintillator pulses have been digitized and shaped with a digital trapezoidal f…
We propose two types of neutron-$γ_1$-$γ_2$ triple coincidence detectors (not constructed) to chase gamma transitions to produce p-nuclei following the neutron emission in the $(γ, n)$ reaction. Neutrons are detected with 24 $^3$He counters embedded in a polyethylene moderator in Type I detector and with 6 liquid scintillation detectors in Type II detector, respectively. $γ$ rays are detected with two high-purity germanium detectors and four LaBr$_3$(Ce) detectors. The detector which is referred to as p-process chaser detector is used to search for mediating states in $^{180}$Ta through which …
The Washington Area Large-scale Time coincidence Array (WALTA) is placing particle detector arrays in secondary schools in the Seattle area to build up a large-scale ultra-high energy cosmic ray detector network, one of several such projects around the world. Scintillation counters salvaged from the CASA experiment in cooperation with the CROP group at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln are refurbished by teachers and students, tested, calibrated, and installed in four-fold arrays at high school sites. To identify time coincidences, a GPS time synchronization system is employed. Data are ac…
LArGe is a GERDA low-background test facility to study novel background suppression methods in a low-background environment, for future application in the GERDA experiment. Similar to GERDA, LArGe operates bare germanium detectors submersed into liquid argon (1 m$^3$, 1.4 tons), which in addition is instrumented with photomultipliers to detect argon scintillation light. The scintillation signals are used in anti-coincidence with the germanium detectors to effectively suppress background events that deposit energy in the liquid argon. The background suppression efficiency was studied in combina…
New detector approaches in Positron Emission Tomography imaging will play an important role in reducing costs, lowering administered radiation doses, and improving overall performance. PETALO employs liquid xenon as the active scintillating medium and UV-sensitive silicon photomultipliers for scintillation readout. The scintillation time in liquid xenon is fast enough to register time-of-flight information for each detected coincidence, and sufficient scintillation is produced with low enough fluctuations to obtain good energy resolution. The present simulation study examines a full-body-sized…
In this paper we use detailed Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that liquid xenon (LXe) can be used to build a Cherenkov-based TOF-PET, with an intrinsic coincidence resolving time (CRT) in the vicinity of 10 ps. This extraordinary performance is due to three facts: a) the abundant emission of Cherenkov photons by liquid xenon; b) the fact that LXe is transparent to Cherenkov light; and c) the fact that the fastest photons in LXe have wavelengths higher than 300 nm, therefore making it possible to separate the detection of scintillation and Cherenkov light. The CRT in a Cherenkov LXe TOF-…
A Unified Analytical Framework for LYSO-SiPM Scintillation Pulse Dynamics
Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学）；Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics（武汉光电国家实验室）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）
This letter explains a new, highly sensitive method for the detection of neutrons, which uses the T$_{1/2}=845$ ns delay in the decay of $^{128}$I at the 137.8 keV energy level, resulting from the capture of thermal neutrons by iodine nuclei in NaI and CsI scintillation detectors. The use of delayed coincidence techniques with a several $μ{\rm s}$ time frame for delayed events allows for the highly effective discrimination of neutron events from any existing background signals. A comparison of ambient neutron measurements between those identified through the suggested method from a cylindrical…
Gadolinium-aluminum-gallium garnet Gd${}_{3}$Al${}_{2}$Ga${}_{3}$O${}_{12}$:Ce scintillator is demonstrated to be an excellent scintillation material for detector of fast neutrons for the first time. Moreover, its application allows to obtain different responses to neutrons depending on their energy spectrum. This is achieved because the material, firstly, has high content of Gd, which absorbs neutrons with following emission of $γ$-quanta, and, secondly, detects this radiation efficiently thanks to high stopping power, fast scintillation kinetics, high scintillation light yield and good energ…
A liquid argon time projection chamber, constructed for the Argon Response to Ionization and Scintillation (ARIS) experiment, has been exposed to the highly collimated and quasi-monoenergetic LICORNE neutron beam at the Institute de Physique Nuclaire Orsay in order to study the scintillation response to nuclear and electronic recoils. An array of liquid scintillator detectors, arranged around the apparatus, tag scattered neutrons and select nuclear recoil energies in the [7, 120] keV energy range. The relative scintillation efficiency of nuclear recoils was measured to high precision at null f…
We report on the construction and upgrade of a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Cosmic Muons Detector. We modify the electronics and mechanics to achieve a highly efficient gamma-ray and cosmic-ray detector. Each detector module uses a one-inch-thick scintillator, attached to a photomultiplier tube (PMT) and mounted on a solid aluminum frame. The detector uses scintillation to transform passing radiation into detectable photons that are guided toward a photocathode surface of the PMT, triggering the release of photoelectrons that are then amplified to yield measurable electronic signals. …
NaI(Tl) large crystals are applied in the search for galactic dark matter particles through their elastic scattering off the target nuclei in the detector by measuring the scintillation signal produced. However, energies deposited in the form of nuclear recoils are small, which added to the low efficiency to convert that energy into scintillation, makes that events at or very near the energy threshold, attributed either to radioactive backgrounds or to spurious noise (non-bulk NaI(Tl) scintillation events), can compromise the sensitivity goals of such an experiment. DAMA/LIBRA experiment, usin…
For a first characterization, we used the two KETEK-PM3325-WB SiPMs each equipped with a 3x3x5 mm${}^3$ LYSO scintillation crystal provided with the PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC Evaluation Kit. We changed the lower of two discriminator thresholds (D_T1) in the timing branch from vth_t1 = 5 - 30. The overvoltage was varied in a range of 1.25 V - 7.25 V. The ambient temperature was kept at 16°C. For all measurements, we performed an energy calibration including a correction for saturation. We evaluated the energy resolution, the coincidence resolving time (CRT) and the coincidence rate. At an overvoltage…
We present a novel analysis technique for liquid xenon time projection chambers that allows for a lower threshold by relying on events with a prompt scintillation signal consisting of single detected photons. The energy threshold of the LUX dark matter experiment is primarily determined by the smallest scintillation response detectable, which previously required a 2-fold coincidence signal in its photomultiplier arrays, enforced in data analysis. The technique presented here exploits the double photoelectron emission effect observed in some photomultiplier models at vacuum ultraviolet waveleng…
A simplified digital spectrometer for the study of $γ$-rays with energies up to $\sim100$ MeV is presented and tested. The spectrometer is only consisted of a fast digital oscilloscope and three scintillation detectors which can work in single or in coincidence modes: two BGO-detectors comprising $\varnothing\,7.62\times7.62$ cm BGO-crystalls and one plastic detector which includes an organic polystyrene-based scintillator. The basic properties of the spectrometer (energy resolution, time resolution, $γ$-rays detection efficiency) were studied exhaustively also using a Geant4-based Monte-Carlo…
Measurement of gamma-ray polarization can provide valuable insight in different areas of physics. A possible application is in Positron Emission Tomography, where annihilation quanta with orthogonal polarizations are emitted. Since polarization can be measured via Compton scattering, the initial orthogonality of polarizations can be translated to correlation of azimuthal scattering angles, and this correlation may be exploited as an additional handle to identify the true coincidence events. To examine the concept of using the polarization correlations in PET, we have used a system of two compa…
The temporal coincidences of events detected in four neutrino detectors and two gravitational antennas still remains among the most puzzling phenomena associated with SN1987A. The coincidences form a six-hour signal approximately coincident in time with the well-known LSD signal at 2h52m UT on 23/02/1987. After 30 years of research, the characteristics and the shape of the six-hour signal have been studied quite well, but the mechanisms of its formation have not been fully understood as of yet. Here we suggest that data obtained from another technology, radioactive decays, might provide new in…
The aim of this work is to show the potential capabilities of monolithic crystals coupled to large SiPM arrays, to be considered as detector blocks for PET scanners enabling Time Of Flight (TOF) capabilities. Monolithic blocks allow one to decode the 3D photon impact position. This approach, along with TOF information, can be of high interest in clinical Positron emission tomography (PET) applications where a typical ring configuration is used. In this manuscript, we evaluate an ASIC- based readout for digitizing all signals coming from analog photosensors. Validation results with one-to-one c…
We describe here an efficient machine-learning based approach for the optimization of parameters used for extracting the arrival time of waveforms, in particular those generated by the detection of 511 keV annihilation gamma-rays by a 60 cm3 coaxial high purity germanium detector (HPGe). The method utilizes a type of artificial neural network (ANN) called a self-organizing map (SOM) to cluster the HPGe waveforms based on the shape of their rising edges. The optimal timing parameters for HPGe waveforms belonging to a particular cluster are found by minimizing the time difference between the HPG…
A technique to measure low intensity fast neutron flux has been developed. The design, calibrations, procedure for data analysis and interpretation of the results are discussed in detail. The technique has been applied to measure the neutron background from rock at the Boulby Underground Laboratory, a site used for dark matter and other experiments, requiring shielding from cosmic ray muons. The experiment was performed using a liquid scintillation detector. A 6.1 litre volume stainless steel cell was filled with an in-house made liquid scintillator loaded with Gd to enhance neutron capture. A…
ZnMoO$_4$ scintillators with a mass of $\sim$ 0.3 kg, as well as Zn$^{100}$MoO$_4$ crystals enriched in the isotope $^{100}$Mo were produced for the first time by using the low-thermal-gradient Czochralski technique. The optical and luminescent properties of the produced crystals were studied to estimate the progress in crystal growth quality. The low-temperature tests with a 313 g ZnMoO$_4$ and two enriched Zn$^{100}$MoO$_4$ crystals were performed aboveground in the Centre de Sciences Nucléaires et de Sciences de la Matière. The low background measurements with a three ZnMoO$_4$ and two enri…
Energy, vertex, and time response of a LiquidO detector with an opaque-scintillator target to Compton-tagged electrons
University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz（美因茨约翰内斯古腾堡大学）；United States Military Academy（美国军事学院（西点军校））；Universidad de Zaragoza（萨拉戈萨大学）；University of Sussex（萨塞克斯大学）；Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa（里斯本大学高等技术学院）；Nantes Université（南特大学）
Two-phase xenon detectors, such as that at the core of the forthcoming LZ dark matter experiment, use photomultiplier tubes to sense the primary (S1) and secondary (S2) scintillation signals resulting from particle interactions in their liquid xenon target. This paper describes a simulation study exploring two techniques to lower the energy threshold of LZ to gain sensitivity to low-mass dark matter and astrophysical neutrinos, which will be applicable to other liquid xenon detectors. The energy threshold is determined by the number of detected S1 photons; typically, these must be recorded in …
