Spectroscopic study of light scattering in linear alkylbenzene for liquid scintillator neutrino detectors

TL;DR

This study uses spectroscopic methods to analyze light scattering in linear alkylbenzene, revealing depolarized Rayleigh scattering that enhances transparency, crucial for improving energy resolution in neutrino detectors like JUNO.

Contribution

It provides the first spectroscopic evidence linking depolarized light scattering to Rayleigh scattering in linear alkylbenzene, improving understanding of its optical properties for neutrino detection.

Findings

Depolarized Rayleigh scattering significantly improves transparency.

Enhanced transparency supports larger liquid scintillator detectors.

Spectroscopic method can identify depolarization sources in organic solvents.

Abstract

We has set up a light scattering spectrometer to study the depolarization of light scattering in linear alkylbenzene. From the scattering spectra it can be unambiguously shown that the depolarized part of light scattering belongs to Rayleigh scattering. The additional depolarized Rayleigh scattering can make the effective transparency of linear alkylbenzene much better than it was expected. Therefore sufficient scintillation photons can transmit through the large liquid scintillator detector of JUNO. Our study is crucial to achieving the unprecedented energy resolution 3\%/$\sqrt{E\mathrm{(MeV)}}$ for JUNO experiment to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy. The spectroscopic method can also be used to judge the attribution of the depolarization of other organic solvents used in neutrino experiments.