Theoretical analysis of scintillation light yield by using sub-micron scale radiation transport calculation

Ogawa, Tatsuhiko   ; Yamaki, Tetsuya*; Sato, Tatsuhiko   

Scintillators are used for detection of various radiation such as electrons, -rays, protons and heavy ions. Fundamentally, scintillators emit lights depending on the deposition energy, but light yield is suppressed (i.e., quenching) in case of highly ionizing radiation. In this study, light yield of scintillators was calculated based on following assumptions; scintillation is attributed to excitation of phosphor molecules by incident particles, Frster effect by the damaged phosphor molecules is the mechanism responsible for quenching, and excitation and damage of phosphor molecules can be calculated by molecular-scale radiation transport simulation code RITRACKS. Protons from 0.1MeV to 150 MeV and electrons from 0.1 MeV to 1 MeV were directed to full-stop thick NE102 scintillator as incident particles and the light yield of scintillators was calculated. Both calculated light yields and earlier measurement data showed that the light yield by electrons is proportional to incident energy whereas the light yield by protons increases with increase in incident energy in a non-linearly. Thus the simulation in this study can accurately reproduce the light yield of scintillators in radiation detection.