Progress in studying scintillator proportionality: Phenomenological model

Journal Article · Thu Apr 30 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2009.2022625· OSTI ID:980745

Bizarri, Gregory; Cherepy, Nerine; Choong, Woon-Seng; Hull, Giulia; Moses, William; Payne, Sephen; Singh, Jai; Valentine, John; Vasilev, Andrey; Williams, Richard

We present a model to describe the origin of non-proportional dependence of scintillator light yield on the energy of an ionizing particle. The non-proportionality is discussed in terms of energy relaxation channels and their linear and non-linear dependences on the deposited energy. In this approach, the scintillation response is described as a function of the deposited energy deposition and the kinetic rates of each relaxation channel. This mathematical framework allows both a qualitative interpretation and a quantitative fitting representation of scintillation non-proportionality response as function of kinetic rates. This method was successfully applied to thallium doped sodium iodide measured with SLYNCI, a new facility using the Compton coincidence technique. Finally, attention is given to the physical meaning of the dominant relaxation channels, and to the potential causes responsible for the scintillation non-proportionality. We find that thallium doped sodium iodide behaves as if non-proportionality is due to competition between radiative recombinations and non-radiative Auger processes.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: Life Sciences Division
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 980745
• Report Number(s): LBNL-2921E
• Journal Information: IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Science, Journal Name: IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Science Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 56
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
COMPETITION
ENERGY
FUNCTIONS
KINETICS
ORIGIN
PHOSPHORS
POTENTIALS
RELAXATION
SCINTILLATIONS
SODIUM IODIDES
THALLIUM
VISIBLE RADIATION
YIELDS