The CLYC-6 and CLYC-7 response to γ-rays, fast and thermal neutrons

The crystal Cs2LiYCl6:Ce (CLYC) is a very interesting scintillator material because of its good energy resolution and its capability to identify γ-rays and fast/thermal neutrons. The crystal Cs2LiYCl6:Ce contains 6Li and 35Cl isotopes, therefore, it is possible to detect thermal neutrons through the reaction 6Li(n, α)t while 35Cl ions allow to measure fast neutrons through the reactions 35Cl(n, p)35S and 35Cl(n, α)32P. In this work two CLYC 1″1″ crystals were used: the first crystal, enriched with 6Li at 95% (CLYC-6) is ideal for thermal neutron measurements while the second one, enriched with 7Li at >99% (CLYC-7) is suitable for fast neutron measurements. The response of CLYC scintillators was measured with different PMT models: timing or spectroscopic, with borosilicate glass or quartz window. The energy resolution, the neutron-γ discrimination and the internal activity are discussed. The capability of CLYC scintillators to discriminate γ rays from neutrons was tested with both thermal and fast neutrons. The thermal neutrons were measured with both detectors, using an AmBe source. The measurements of fast neutrons were performed at the Frascati Neutron Generator facility (Italy) where a deuterium beam was accelerated on a deuterium or on a tritium target, providing neutrons of 2.5 MeV or 14.1 MeV, respectively. The different sensitivity to thermal and fast neutrons of a CLYC-6 and of a CLYC-7 was additionally studied

Fast neutron measurements with 7Li and 6Li enriched CLYC scintillators

The recently developed Cs2LiYCl6:Ce (CLYC) crystals are interesting scintillation detectors not only for their gamma energy resolution (<5% at 662 keV) but also for their capability to identify and measure the energy of both gamma rays and fast/thermal neutrons. The thermal neutrons were detected by the 6Li(n,α)t reaction while for the fast neutrons the 35Cl(n,p)35S and 35Cl(n,α)32P neutron-capture reactions were exploited. The energy of the outgoing proton or α particle scales linearly with the incident neutron energy. The kinetic energy of the fast neutrons can be measured using both the Time Of Flight (TOF) technique and using the CLYC energy signal. In this work, the response to monochromatic fast neutrons (1.9-3.8 MeV) of two CLYC 1"×1" crystals was measured using both the TOF and the energy signal. The observables were combined to identify fast neutrons, to subtract the thermal neutron background and to identify different fast neutron-capture reactions on 35Cl, in other words to understand if the detected particle is an α or a proton. We performed a dedicated measurement at the CN accelerator facility of the INFN Legnaro National Laboratories (Italy), where the fast neutrons were produced by impinging a proton beam (4.5, 5.0 and 5.5 MeV) on a 7LiF target. We tested a CLYC detector 6Li-enriched at about 95%, which is ideal for thermal neutron measurements, in parallel with another CLYC detector 7Li-enriched at more than 99%, which is suitable for fast neutron measurements

Characterization of Large Volume 3.5 x 8 inches LaBr3:Ce Detectors

The properties of large volume cylindrical 3.5 x 8 inches (89 mm x 203 mm) LaBr3:Ce scintillation detectors coupled to the Hamamatsu R10233-100SEL photo-multiplier tube were investigated. These crystals are among the largest ones ever produced and still need to be fully characterized to determine how these detectors can be utilized and in which applications. We tested the detectors using monochromatic gamma-ray sources and in-beam reactions producing gamma rays up to 22.6 MeV; we acquired PMT signal pulses and calculated detector energy resolution and response linearity as a function of gamma-ray energy. Two different voltage dividers were coupled to the Hamamatsu R10233-100SEL PMT: the Hamamatsu E1198-26, based on straightforward resistive network design, and the LABRVD, specifically designed for our large volume LaBr3:Ce scintillation detectors, which also includes active semiconductor devices. Because of the extremely high light yield of LaBr3:Ce crystals we observed that, depending on the choice of PMT, voltage divider and applied voltage, some significant deviation from the ideally proportional response of the detector and some pulse shape deformation appear. In addition, crystal non-homogeneities and PMT gain drifts affect the (measured) energy resolution especially in case of high-energy gamma rays. We also measured the time resolution of detectors with different sizes (from 1x1 inches up to 3.5x8 inches), correlating the results with both the intrinsic properties of PMTs and GEANT simulations of the scintillation light collection process. The detector absolute full energy efficiency was measured and simulated up to gamma-rays of 30 Me

Identification and rejection of scattered neutrons in AGATA

Gamma rays and neutrons, emitted following spontaneous fission of 252Cf, were measured in an AGATA experiment performed at INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro in Italy. The setup consisted of four AGATA triple cluster detectors (12 36-fold segmented high-purity germanium crystals), placed at a distance of 50 cm from the source, and 16 HELENA BaF2 detectors. The aim of the experiment was to study the interaction of neutrons in the segmented high-purity germanium detectors of AGATA and to investigate the possibility to discriminate neutrons and gamma rays with the gamma-ray tracking technique. The BaF2 detectors were used for a time-of-flight measurement, which gave an independent discrimination of neutrons and gamma rays and which was used to optimise the gamma-ray tracking-based neutron rejection methods. It was found that standard gamma-ray tracking, without any additional neutron rejection features, eliminates effectively most of the interaction points due to recoiling Ge nuclei after elastic scattering of neutrons. Standard tracking rejects also a significant amount of the events due to inelastic scattering of neutrons in the germanium crystals. Further enhancements of the neutron rejection was obtained by setting conditions on the following quantities, which were evaluated for each event by the tracking algorithm: energy of the first and second interaction point, difference in the calculated incoming direction of the gamma ray, figure-of-merit value. The experimental results of tracking with neutron rejection agree rather well with Geant4 simulations

Isospin mixing in Zr 80: from finite to zero temperature

S. Ceruti et al.; 5 págs.; 4 figs.; PACS numbers: 24.30.Cz, 24.60.Dr, 24.80.+y, 25.70.GhThe isospin mixing was deduced in the compound nucleus Zr80 at an excitation energy of E∗=54 MeV from the γ decay of the giant dipole resonance. The reaction Ca40+Ca40 at Ebeam=136 MeV was used to form the compound nucleus in the isospin I=0 channel, while the reaction Cl37+Ca44 at Ebeam=95 MeV was used as the reference reaction. The γ rays were detected with the AGATA demonstrator array coupled with LaBr3:Ce detectors. The temperature dependence of the isospin mixing was obtained and the zero-temperature value deduced. The isospin-symmetry-breaking correction δC used for the Fermi superallowed transitions was extracted and found to be consistent with β-decay data.This work was supported by PRIN No. 2001024324_01302, the Polish National Center for Science Grants No. 2013/08/ M/ST2/00591 and No. 2011/03/B/ST2/01894, and the Spanish Grant No. FPA2011-29854-C04-01. German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) under Contract No. 05P12PKFNE TP4.Peer Reviewe

Phototube non-linearity correction technique

Scintillation light is often detected by photo-multiplier tube (PMT) technology. PMTs are however intrinsically non linear devices, especially when operated with high light yield scintillators and high input photon flux. Many physical effects (e.g. inter-dynode field variation, photocathode resistivity, etc.) can spoil the ideal PMT behavior in terms of gain, ending up in what are addressed as the under-linearity and over-linearity effects.Established techniques implemented in the PMT base (e.g. increasing bleeding current, active voltage divider, etc.) can mitigate these effects, but given the unavoidable spread in manufacturing and materials, it turns out that, with respect to linearity at the percent level, every PMT sample is a story of its own.The residual non linearity is usually accounted for with polynomial correction of the spectrum energy scale, starting from the position of a few known energy peaks of calibration sources, but uncertainly remains in between of calibration peaks. We propose to retrieve the calibration information from the entire energy spectrum and not only the position of full energy peaks (FEP), by means of an automatic procedure that also takes into account the quality (signal/noise ratio) of the information about the non-linearity extracted from the various regions of the spectrum

Pygmy dipole resonance in Ce 140 via inelastic scattering of O 17

M. Krzysiek et al. ; 8 págs.; 7 figs. ; 2 tabs.The γ decay from the high-lying states of Ce140 excited via inelastic scattering of O17 at a bombarding energy of 340 MeV was measured using the high-resolution AGATA-demonstrator array in coincidence with scattered ions detected in two segmented ΔE-E silicon detectors. Angular distributions of scattered ions and emitted γ rays were measured, as well as their differential cross sections. The excitation of 1- states below the neutron separation energy is similar to the one obtained in reactions with the α isoscalar probe. The comparison between the experimental differential cross sections and the corresponding predictions using the distorted-wave Born approximation allowed us to extract the isoscalar component of identified 1- pygmy states. For this analysis the form factor obtained by folding microscopically calculated transition densities and optical potentials was used. ©2016 American Physical SocietyThis work has been partly supported by the stipend from Marian Smoluchowski Krakow Research Consortium ’Matter-Energy-Future’ as a Leading National Research Center (KNOW) and also by several grants: the Polish National Science Centre under Contracts No. 2015/17/B/ST2/01534, No. 2013/09/N/ST2/04093, No. 2013/08/M/ST2/00591, and No. 2011/03/B/ST2/01894; US-NSF Grants No. PHY-1204486 and No. PHY-1404343; Croatian Science Foundation under Project No. IP-2014-09-9159; the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Contract No. FPA2014-57196-C5-4-P. Also, A. Gadea has been supported by MINECO, Spain, under Grant No. FPA2014-57196-C5; Generalitat Valenciana, Spain, under Grant No. PROMETEOII/2014/019; and the EU under the FEDER program. The research leading to these results has also received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under Grant Agreement No. 262010 - ENSAR.Peer Reviewe

Charged particle decay of hot and rotating 88^{88}Mo nuclei in fusion-evaporation reactions

A study of fusion-evaporation and (partly) fusion-fission channels for the $^{88}$Mo compound nucleus, produced at different excitation energies in the reaction $^{48}$Ti + $^{40}$Ca at 300, 450 and 600 MeV beam energies, is presented. Fusion-evaporation and fusion-fission cross sections have been extracted and compared with the existing systematics. Experimental data concerning light charged particles have been compared with the prediction of the statistical model in its implementation in the Gemini++ code, well suited even for high spin systems, in order to tune the main model parameters in a mass region not abundantly covered by exclusive experimental data. Multiplicities for light charged particles emitted in fusion evaporation events are also presented. Some discrepancies with respect to the prediction of the statistical model have been found for forward emitted $\alpha$-particles; they may be due both to pre-equilibrium emission and to reaction channels (such as Deep Inelastic Collisions, QuasiFission/QuasiFusion) different from the compound nucleus formation.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figure

Characterization of Large Volume 3.5″ x 8″ LaBr3:Ce Detectors for the HECTOR+ array

A selection of the properties of large volume, cylindrical 3.5" x 8" LaBr 3 :Ce scintillation detectors coupled to a 3.5" PMT (model R10233-1000SEL from HAMAMATSU) and a special designed Voltage Divider (LABRVD) will be discussed. A number of 10 of such detectors constitute the HECTOR + array which, in fall 2012, measured at GSI coupled to the AGATA DEMOSTRATOR at the PRESPEC experimental setup. These crystals are among the largest ever produced and needed to be characterized. We have performed several tests and here we discuss, in particular, the energy resolution measured using monochromatic γ −ray sources and in-beam reactions producing γ −rays up to 22.6 MeV. As already measured in two previous works a saturation in the energy resolution was observed in case of high energy gamma rays. Crystal non-homogeneities and PMT gain drifts can affect the resolution of measurements especially in case of high energy γ −rays