Separation of Scintillation and Cherenkov Lights in Linear Alkyl Benzene

TL;DR

This study demonstrates effective separation of scintillation and Cherenkov lights in linear alkyl benzene, providing key timing and yield measurements crucial for future neutrino and proton decay experiments.

Contribution

The paper reports the first clear separation of scintillation and Cherenkov lights in LAB, with detailed timing and light yield measurements.

Findings

Good separation of scintillation and Cherenkov lights achieved

Measured scintillation rise time: 7.7 ns, decay time: 36.6 ns

Scintillation light yield: 1010 photons/MeV

Abstract

To separate scintillation and Cherenkov lights in water-based liquid scintillator detectors is a desired feature for future neutrino and proton decay researches. Linear alkyl benzene (LAB) is one important ingredient of a water-based liquid scintillator being developed. In this paper we observed a good separation of scintillation and Cherenkov lights in an LAB sample. The rising and decay times of the scintillation light of the LAB were measured to be $(7.7\pm3.0)\ \rm{ns}$ and $(36.6\pm2.4)\ \rm{ns}$, respectively, while the full width [-3$\sigma$, 3$\sigma$] of the Cherenkov light was 12 ns dominated by the time resolution of our photomultiplier tubes. The light yield of the scintillation was measured to be $(1.01\pm0.12)\times10^3\ \rm{photons}/\rm{MeV}$.