Advanced Large Area Plastic Scintillator Project (ALPS): Final Report

Technical Report · Tue Feb 05 04:00:00 EST 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/925718· OSTI ID:925718

Jordan, David V; Reeder, Paul L; Todd, Lindsay C; Warren, Glen A; McCormick, Kathleen R; Stephens, Daniel L; Geelhood, Bruce D; Alzheimer, James M; Crowell, Shannon L; Sliger, William A

The advanced Large-Area Plastic Scintillator (ALPS) Project at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory investigated possible technological avenues for substantially advancing the state-of-the-art in gamma-ray detection via large-area plastic scintillators. The three predominant themes of these investigations comprised the following: * Maximizing light collection efficiency from a single large-area sheet of plastic scintillator, and optimizing hardware event trigger definition to retain detection efficiency while exploiting the power of coincidence to suppress single-PMT "dark current" background; * Utilizing anti-Compton vetoing and supplementary spectral information from a co-located secondary, or "Back" detector, to both (1) minimize Compton background in the low-energy portion of the "Front" scintillator's pulse-height spectrum, and (2) sharpen the statistical accuracy of the front detector's low-energy response prediction as impelmented in suitable energy-windowing algorithms; and * Investigating alternative materials to enhance the intrinsic gamma-ray detection efficiency of plastic-based sensors.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 925718
• Report Number(s): PNNL-17305; NN2001000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ALPS
COINCIDENCE METHODS
EFFICIENCY
GAMMA DETECTION
Large-area
PLASTIC SCINTILLATORS
Plastic Scintillator
RADIATION DETECTORS