Cherenkov and scintillation separation in water-based liquid scintillator using an LAPPDTM

T. Kaptanoglu; E. J. Callaghan; M. Yeh; G. D. Orebi Gann

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10087-5

2023 Impact factor 4.2

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2022) 82: 169
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10087-5

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Cherenkov and scintillation separation in water-based liquid scintillator using an LAPPD^TM

T. Kaptanoglu¹^,2^a, E. J. Callaghan¹^,2, M. Yeh³ and G. D. Orebi Gann¹^,2

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

^a tannerbk@berkeley.edu

Received: 25 October 2021
Accepted: 2 February 2022
Published online: 24 February 2022

Abstract

This manuscript describes measurements of water-based liquid scintillators (WbLS), demonstrating separation of the Cherenkov and scintillation components using a low energy $β$ $\beta$ source and the fast timing response of a Large Area Picosecond Photodetector (LAPPD). Additionally, the time profiles of three WbLS mixtures, defined by the relative fractions of scintillating compound, are characterized, with improved sensitivity to the scintillator rise-time. The measurements were made using both an LAPPD and a conventional photomultiplier tube (PMT). All samples were measured with an effective resolution $O (100 ps)$ $O\left( 100~\text {ps}\right)$ , which allows for the separation of Cherenkov and scintillation light (henceforth C/S separation) by selecting on the arrival time of the photons alone. The Cherenkov purity of the selected photons is greater than 60% in all cases, with greater than 80% achieved for a sample containing 1% scintillator. This is the first demonstration of the power of synthesizing low light yield scintillators, of which WbLS is the canonical example, with fast photodetectors, of which LAPPDs are an emerging leader, and has direct implication for future mid- and large-scale detectors, such as Theia, ANNIE, and AIT-NEO.

© The Author(s) 2022

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