Measurement of proton quenching in a plastic scintillator detector

Abstract

The non-linear energy response of the plastic scintillator EJ-260 is measured with the MicroCHANDLER detector, using neutron beams of energy 5 to 27 MeV at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory. The first and second order Birks' constants are extracted from the data, and found to be kB = (8.70 ± 0.93)× 10−3 g/cm2/MeV and kC = (1.42 ± 1.00) × 10−5 (g/cm2/MeV)2. This result covers a unique energy range that is of direct relevance for fast neutron backgrounds in reactor inverse beta decay detectors. These measurements will improve the energy non-linearity modeling of plastic scintillator detectors. In particular, the updated energy response model will lead to an improvement of fast neutron modeling for detectors based on the CHANDLER reactor neutrino detector technology.

Measurement of the Ionization Yield of Neutron-Induced Proton Recoils in Tetramethylsilane

“…7 (bottom) and listed in Table 1. These field-dependent quenching factors range from 36% to 44% and are comparable to those (∼ 30%) measured for plastic scintillators with a similar chemical composition [13,14], presumably implying that the quenching is universally dominated by the migration of energy into channels other than ionization or scintillation.…”

Measurement of the ionization yield of neutron-induced proton recoils in Tetramethylsilane

“…is obtained for each electric field, as shown in figure 7 (bottom) and listed in table 1. These field-dependent quenching factors range from 36% to 44% and are comparable to those (∼ 30%) measured for plastic scintillators with a similar chemical composition [16,17], presumably implying that the quenching is universally dominated by the migration of energy into channels other than ionization or scintillation.…”

Measurement of scintillation response of CsI[Na] to low-energy nuclear recoils by COHERENT

“…The variety of neutron production channels can provide beam energies in the 50 keV-30 MeV range. This facility was previously used to evaluate the NR QF for organic scintillators such as EJ-301 [22], EJ-228 [23], EJ-260 [24], stilbene [25,26] and inorganic sensitive media such as two-phase xenon [27] and neon gas [28].…”