Application of accelerators for the research and development of scintillators

澁谷 憲悟*; 越水 正典*; 浅井 圭介*; 室屋 裕佐*; 勝村 庸介; 稲玉 直子*; 吉田 英治*; 錦戸 文彦*; 山谷 泰賀*; 村山 秀雄*

Review of Scientific Instruments, 78(8), p.083303_1 - 083303_7, 2007/08

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2777152

We introduce experimental systems which use accelerators to evaluate scintillation properties such as scintillation intensity, wavelength, and lifetime. A single crystal of good optical quality is often unavailable during early stages in the research and development (R&D) of new scintillator materials. Because of their beams' high excitation power and/or low penetration depth, accelerators facilitate estimation of the properties of early samples which may only be available as powders, thin films, and very small crystals. We constructed a scintillation spectrum measurement system that uses a Van de Graaff accelerator and an optical multichannel analyzer to estimate the relative scintillation intensity. In addition, we constructed a scintillation time profile measurement system that uses an electron linear accelerator and a femtosecond streak camera or a microchannel plate photomultiplier tube followed by a digital oscilloscope to determine the scintillation lifetimes. The time resolution is approximately 10 ps. The scintillation spectra or time profiles can be obtained in a significantly shorter acquisition time in comparison with that required by conventional measuring systems. The advantages of the systems described in this study can significantly promote the R&D of novelscintillator materials.