High-Performance/-Precision/-Z(HPPZ) Scintillator Grids via Advanced Electrochemistry. Phase I – Project # 20210572MFR- Mid year review [Slides]
Scintillation grids with improved imaging resolution in time and space, are required for future mission needs at various facilities (pRad user station, LANSCE, DARHT, Scorpius etc). Current technologies use inorganic crystal scintillators, which are positioned within a high-Z scintillator septa. Dense and high-Z materials are optimal for gamma-ray detection making them promising candidates for development of high -performance/-precision/-Z (HPPZ) scintillator grids. The current resolution of standard chemical etching and fabrication processes of high-Z materials is very low, leading to undesired undercutting and ultimately reducing crystal performance efficiency. Goals are to: Perform initial feasibility studies with the aim of producing complex parts for applications with difficult-to-process high-Z material; Use of pulse and pulse-reverse electrochemical methods on additive approaches to produce high-precision Au and Re scintillator grids at a small scale; and, Follow up in Phase II with the delivery of a large-scale scintillator grid of the best material candidate with unprecedented properties for LANL needs determined in Phase I.