https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-8418-4
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Characterization of water-based liquid scintillator for Cherenkov and scintillation separation
1
University of California, 94720-7300, Berkeley, CA, USA
2
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 94720-8153, Berkeley, CA, USA
3
Brookhaven National Laboratory, 11973-500, Upton, NY, USA
Received:
1
June
2020
Accepted:
29
August
2020
Published online:
20
September
2020
This paper presents measurements of the scintillation light yield and time profile for a number of concentrations of water-based liquid scintillator, formulated from linear alkylbenzene (LAB) and 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO). We find that the scintillation light yield is linear with the concentration of liquid scintillator in water between 1 and 10% with a slope of 
ph/MeV/concentration and an intercept value of 
ph/MeV, the latter being illustrative of non-linearities with concentration at values less than 1%. This is larger than expected from a simple extrapolation of the pure liquid scintillator light yield. The measured time profiles are consistently faster than that of pure liquid scintillator, with rise times less than 250 ps and prompt decay constants in the range of 2.1–2.85 ns. Additionally, the separation between Cherenkov and scintillation light is quantified using cosmic muons in the CHESS experiment for each formulation, demonstrating an improvement in separation at the centimeter scale. Finally, we briefly discuss the prospects for large-scale detectors.
© The Author(s) 2020
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