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At least 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Characterization and Evaluation of Scintillating Fiber System Components

Idaho National Laboratory is studying long scintillation fibers (SF) in a project called “TRIPWIRE” which aims to verify containment in inaccessible nuclear waste repositories. This system will continuously monitor ionizing radiation, electromagnetic fields, and seismic activity in the vicinity of nuclear waste. Previous experiments have determined a better alternative to long SF is to couple shorter SF to kilometer scale optical fiber (OF) to reach electronics far outside of the repository. Minor signal attenuation from coupling these fibers has been observed using optical spectrometry. This experiment characterized two photomultiplier tubes (PMT) to reduce this loss by matching their spectral response characteristics to the SF’s emission spectrum. The experiment created a comparison between the two PMTs showing results that suggest other characteristics are playing a major role in improving signal attenuation when the SF is coupled to OF.

98 - NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL↗
DOE OSTI2024

Development of a scintillator based fast-ion loss detector for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator

A new scintillator based fast-ion loss detector (FILD) system has been designed for the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator. The mechanical design of the system is presented here along with engineering analyses of the system. This includes an assessment of the structural loads which also considers electromagnetic forces calculated for possible disruption scenarios as well as a mode frequency analysis of the system. Furthermore, an analysis of the thermal characteristics of the actively cooled probe head under prescribed steady state and transient heat loads is presented. Finally, the optical relay system is described and its properties used to forward model synthetic camera signals using the FILDSIM code and based on theoretical fast-ion losses incident on the probe head calculated using the ASCOT5 code.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Fast-neutron response of LaBr 3 (Ce) and LaCl 3 (Ce) scintillators

The response of LaBr 3 (Ce) and LaCl 3 (Ce) scintillators to fast neutrons is investigated. Neutron-induced charged-particle reactions are observed in both materials when exposed to the fast neutrons produced by an AmBe source, with pulse-shape discrimination used to separate channels. LaBr 3 (Ce) is found to have the best separation between reaction channels, while LaCl 3 (Ce) has a significantly higher efficiency.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The electronic set-up for the scintillation light detection system of ICARUS-SBN at Fermilab

The ICARUS-T600 Liquid Argon (LAr) Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is presently used as the far detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program at Fermilab (USA) to search for a possible sterile neutrino signal with the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB). We discuss a light detection system, based on 360 Hamamatsu R5912-MOD Photo-Multiplier Tubes (PMTs), which has been realized to detect vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photons produced after the passage of ionizing particles in LAr. High performance electronics allows recording of the PMT signals and provides a fast discrimination for the exploitation of the scintillation light for trigger purposes. This system is fundamental for the TPC operation, contributing to the trigger system and for the 3D reconstruction of events.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

X-ray Scintillating Lanthanide-Based Coordination Polymers

Reported are the syntheses and characterization of 25 lanthanide-containing coordination polymers exhibiting four structure types: type I′: [Ln(TFTP) 1.5 (bpy)] (Ln = La 3+ –Nd 3+ ), type I: [Ln(TFTP) 1.5 (bpy)(H 2 O)] (Ln = Sm 3+ –Lu 3+ ), type II′: [Pr(TFTP) 1.5 (phen)], and type II: [Ln(TFTP) 1.5 (phen)(H 2 O)] (Ln = Nd 3+ –Yb 3+ , excluding Pm). These compounds feature lanthanide metal cations bound to tetrafluoroterephthalate linkers (TFTP) and either, 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy) or 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) capping ligands. Initial calculations using crystallographic data revealed large void spaces, ranging from 86 Å 3 in type I to 333 Å 3 in type II. Yet, adsorption isotherm data indicate very little gas uptake of both materials with a BET surface area of 9 m 2 /g for I-Tb (8) and 19 m 2 /g for II-Tb (20). X-ray irradiation of I-Eu (6), II-Eu (18), I-Tb (8), and II-Tb (20) produced visible red and green emission, respectively. Furthermore, radioluminescence studies of both type I and II with Sm 3+ , Eu 3+ , and Tb 3+ metal centers indicate that both structure types featuring Tb 3+ are brighter than those with Eu 3+ or Sm 3+ . Notably, structure type I with Tb 3+ is the brightest scintillator with a relative luminosity of 1.7× that of bismuth germanate (BGO).

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Modeling ionization quenching in organic scintillators

Ionization quenching models were assessed by evaluating light yield data from multiple organic scintillators and recoil ions over a fission spectrum neutron energy range, important for basic science and applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Imaging suprathermal x-rays from a laboratory plasma jet using PIN-diode-based and scintillator-based 1D pinhole/coded aperture cameras

A PIN-diode-based 1D x-ray camera and a scintillator-based 1D x-ray camera, both with a microsecond to submicrosecond time resolution, have been developed to perform time-resolved imaging of transient, low-intensity, suprathermal x-rays associated with magnetohydrodynamic instabilities disrupting a plasma jet. These cameras have a high detection efficiency over a broad x-ray band, a wide field of view, and the capability to produce >50 time-resolved frames with a ≤1 μs time resolution. The x-ray images are formed by a pinhole or by a coded aperture placed outside a vacuum chamber in which the plasma jet is launched. The 1D imaging shows that the location of the x-ray source is either a few centimeters away from an inner disk electrode or near a spatially translatable metal frame that is 30–40 cm away from the electrode. Compared to a pinhole, a coded aperture increases the signal collection efficiency but also introduces unwanted artifacts.

Instruments & Instrumentation↗
DOE OSTI2023

Design, construction and commissioning of a technological prototype of a highly granular SiPM-on-tile scintillator-steel hadronic calorimeter

The CALICE collaboration is developing highly granular electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters for detectors at future energy frontier electron-positron colliders. After successful tests of a physics prototype, a technological prototype of the Analog Hadron Calorimeter has been built, based on a design and construction techniques scalable to a collider detector. The prototype consists of a steel absorber structure and active layers of small scintillator tiles that are individually read out by directly coupled SiPMs. Each layer has an active area of 72 × 72 cm^2 and a tile size of 3 × 3 cm^2. With 38 active layers, the prototype has nearly 22,000 readout channels, and its total thickness amounts to 4.4 nuclear interaction lengths. The dedicated readout electronics provide time stamping of each hit with an expected resolution of about 1 ns. The prototype was constructed in 2017 and commissioned in beam tests at DESY. It recorded muons, hadron showers and electron showers at different energies in test beams at CERN in 2018. In this paper, the design of the prototype, its construction and commissioning are described. The methods used to calibrate the detector are detailed, and the performance achieved in terms of uniformity and stability is presented.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

A comparison of the neutron detection efficiency and response characteristics of two pixelated PSD-capable organic scintillator detectors with different photo-detection readout methods

Here, we characterize the performance of two pixelated neutron detectors: a PMT-based array that utilizes Anger logic for pixel identification and a SiPM-based array that employs individual pixel readout. The SiPM-based array offers improved performance over the previously developed PMT-based detector both in terms of uniformity and neutron detection efficiency. Each detector array uses PSD-capable plastic scintillator as a detection medium. We describe the calibration and neutron efficiency measurement of both detectors using a 137 Cs source for energy calibration and a 252 Cf source for calibration of the neutron response. We find that the intrinsic neutron detection efficiency of the SiPM-based array is (30.2 ± 0.9)%, which is almost twice that of the PMT-based array, which we measure to be (16.9 ± 0.1)%.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Batch VUV4 characterization for the SBC-LAr10 scintillating bubble chamber

The Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) collaboration purchased 32 Hamamatsu VUV4 silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) for use in SBC-LAr10, a bubble chamber containing 10 kg of liquid argon. A dark-count characterization technique, which avoids the use of a single-photon source, was used at two temperatures to measure the VUV4 SiPMs breakdown voltage (V BD ), the SiPM gain (g SiPM ), the rate of change of g SiPM with respect to voltage (m), the dark count rate (DCR), and the probability of a correlated avalanche (P CA ) as well as the temperature coefficients of these parameters. A Peltier-based chilled vacuum chamber was developed at Queen's University to cool down the Quads to 233.15 ± 0.2 K and 255.15 ± 0.2 K with average stability of ±20 mK. An analysis framework was developed to estimate V BD to tens of mV precision and DCR close to Poissonian error. The temperature dependence of V BD was found to be 56 ± 2 mV K -1 , and m on average across all Quads was found to be (459 ± 3(stat.)±23(sys.))× 10 3 e- PE -1 V -1 . The average DCR temperature coefficient was estimated to be 0.099 ± 0.008 K -1 corresponding to a reduction factor of 7 for every 20 K drop in temperature. The average temperature dependence of P CA was estimated to be 4000 ± 1000 ppm K -1 . P CA estimated from the average across all SiPMs is a better estimator than the P CA calculated from individual SiPMs, for all of the other parameters, the opposite is true. All the estimated parameters were measured to the precision required for SBC-LAr10, and the Quads will be used in conditions to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Radon emanation rate measurements using liquid scintillation counting

This article describes a radon emanation measurement technique using liquid scintillator counting. A model for radon loading and transport is described, along with its calibration. Detector background and blank have been studied and quantified. The Minimal detectable activity has been determined for the counting setup using a toy Monte Carlo simulation. Here, the measurement technique is validated using a butyl rubber sample previously used for cross-calibration between different radon counting facilities.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evaluation of the response to electrons and pions in the scintillating fiber and lead calorimeter for the future electron-ion collider

The performance of the Baby Barrel Electromagnetic Calorimeter (Baby BCAL) — a small-scale lead-scintillating-fiber (Pb/ScFi) prototype of the GlueX Barrel Electromagnetic Calorimeter (BCAL) — was tested in a dedicated beam campaign at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility (FTBF). This study provides a benchmark for the Pb/ScFi component of the future Barrel Imaging Calorimeter (BIC) in the ePIC detector at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The detector response to electrons and pions was studied at beam energies between 4 and 10 GeV, extending previous GlueX tests to a higher energy regime. The calibrated detector exhibits good linearity within uncertainties, and its electron energy resolution meets EIC requirements. The data further constrain the constant term in the energy resolution to below 1.9%, improving upon previous constraints at lower energies. Simulations reproduce key features of the electron and pion data within the limitations of the collected dataset and the FTBF test environment. Electron-pion separation in the test beam setup was analyzed using multiple methods, incorporating varying degrees of beam-related effects. The inclusion of longitudinal shower profile information enhanced the separation performance, underscoring its relevance for the full-scale BIC in ePIC. These results provide essential benchmarks for the Pb/ScFi section of the future BIC, validating detector simulations and guiding optimization strategies for electron-pion discrimination.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Prototype reactor-antineutrino detector based on 6 Li-doped pulse-shape-discriminating plastic scintillator

An aboveground 60-kg reactor-antineutrino detector prototype, comprising a two-dimensional array of 36 6 ⁢Li-doped pulse-shape-sensitive plastic scintillator bars, is described. Each bar is 50 cm long with a square cross section of 5.5 cm. Doped with 6 ⁢Li at 0.1% by mass, the detector is capable of identifying correlated energy depositions for the detection of reactor antineutrinos via the inverse-𝛽-decay (IDB) reaction. Each bar is wrapped with a specular reflector that directs photons toward photomultiplier tubes mounted at both ends of the bar. Here, this paper highlights the construction, key features, and main performance characteristics of the system. The system, which relies on multiple observables such as pulse-shape discrimination, energy, position, and timing, is capable of detecting IBD-like neutron-correlated backgrounds, long-lived decay chains, and cosmogenic isotopes.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2023

Neutron detection and application with a novel 3D-projection scintillator tracker in the future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments

Neutrino oscillation experiments require a precise measurement of the neutrino energy. However, the kinematic detection of the final-state neutron in the neutrino interaction is missing in current neutrino oscillation experiments. The missing neutron kinematic detection results in a smaller detected neutrino energy than the true neutrino energy. A novel 3D-projection scintillator tracker, which consists of roughly ten million active cubes covered with an optical reflector, is capable of measuring the neutron kinetic energy and direction on an event-by-event basis using the time-of-flight technique thanks to the fast timing, fine granularity, and high light yield. The $\overline{v}$ μ interactions tend to produce neutrons in the final state. By measuring the neutron kinetic energy, the $\overline{v}$ μ energy can be reconstructed better, allowing a tighter incoming neutrino flux constraint. This article shows the detector's ability to reconstruct neutron kinetic energy and the $\overline{v}$ μ flux constraint achieved by selecting the charged-current interactions without mesons or protons in the final state.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Exploring solar neutrino oscillation parameters with the liquid scintillator counter at Yemilab with a comparison to JUNO

We investigate the sensitivities of the liquid scintillator counter (LSC) at Yemilab and JUNO to solar neutrino oscillation parameters, focusing on θ 12 and Δ m 21 2 . We compare the potential of JUNO with LSC at Yemilab utilizing both reactor and solar data in determining those parameters. We find that the solar neutrino data of LSC at Yemilab is highly sensitive to θ 12 enabling its determination with a higher precision compared to reactor experiments. Our study also reveals that if Δ m 21 2 is larger, with a value close to the best-fit value of KamLAND, JUNO reactor data will have about two times better precision than the reactor LSC at Yemilab. On the other hand, if Δ m 21 2 is smaller and closer to the best-fit value of solar neutrino experiments, the precision of the reactor LSC at Yemilab will be better than JUNO. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Low-threshold response of a scintillating xenon bubble chamber to nuclear and electronic recoils

A device filled with pure xenon first demonstrated the ability to operate simultaneously as a bubble chamber and scintillation detector in 2017. Initial results from data taken at thermodynamic thresholds down to ∼4 keV showed sensitivity to ∼20 keV nuclear recoils with no observable bubble nucleation by 𝛾-ray interactions. Here, this paper presents results from further operation of the same device at thermodynamic thresholds as low as 0.50 keV, hardware limited. The bubble chamber has now been shown to have sensitivity to ∼1 keV nuclear recoils while remaining insensitive to bubble nucleation by 𝛾-rays. A data-driven calibration of the chamber’s nuclear recoil nucleation response, as a function of nuclear recoil energy and thermodynamic state, is presented. Stringent upper limits are established for the probability of bubble nucleation by 𝛾-ray-induced Auger cascades, with a limit of <1.1 ×10 −6 set at 0.50 keV, the lowest thermodynamic threshold explored.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Onset of Fogging and Degradation in Polyvinyl Toluene-Based Scintillators

Plastic-based gamma-ray detector materials such as polyvinyl toluene (PVT) occasionally suffer from loss of optical light transmission due to internal defects or “fogging” when exposed to some environmental conditions over time. Fogging results in reduced scintillation light propagated to the photomultiplier tube for collection. Investigations of the physical cause of these defects and their associated environmental conditions are ongoing. The goal of this work was to characterize the signs and effects of fogging over a simulated 22-year lifespan of the PVT in outdoor environments. Here, two potential mitigation methods were also evaluated, and one successfully mitigated the phenomena.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗