Multipurpose Ce-doped Ba-Gd silica glass scintillator for radiation measurements

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 2021-11, Vol.1015, p.165762, Article 165762
• Main Authors: Dormenev, V., Amelina, A., Auffray, E., Brinkmann, K.-T., Dosovitskiy, G., Cova, F., Fedorov, A., Gundacker, S., Kazlou, D., Korjik, M., Kratochwil, N., Ladygin, V., Mechinsky, V., Moritz, M., Nargelas, S., Novotny, R.W., Orsich, P., Salomoni, M., Talochka, Y., Tamulaitis, G., Vaitkevicius, A., Vedda, A., Zaunick, H.-G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Detectors; Glass; Ionizing radiation; Scintillator
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2021.165762

A new inorganic scintillation material based on Ba-Gd silica glass doped with cerium (BGS) is fabricated and studied. With the highest light yield among heavy glasses at the level of 2500 ph/MeV and fast scintillation response, the new scintillator ensures a good coincidence time resolution of < 230 ps FWHM for 511 keV γ-quanta from a 22Na source and SiPM readout. In addition to good performance in γ-quanta detection, the material demonstrates capability for efficient detection of low-energetic​ neutrons. The scintillator is produced by exploiting the standard industrial glass technology, which allows for an unlimited scaling up the conversion of raw material into a high-quality scintillator at a high rate. The glass can be casted in application-specific molds, so minimizing the material losses. The presented glass scintillator has potential for further improvement of its light output and scintillation response time.