Comparative scintillation performance of EJ-309, EJ-276, and a novel organic glass

TL;DR

This study compares the scintillation performance of a new organic glass scintillator with commercial EJ-309 and EJ-276, showing the organic glass has higher electron light output and comparable or superior neutron detection capabilities.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel organic glass scintillator and provides a comprehensive comparison of its light output, proton light yield, and pulse shape discrimination with established scintillators.

Findings

Organic glass has higher electron light output than EJ-309 and EJ-276.

Proton light yield of organic glass is comparable to EJ-309 and better than EJ-276.

Organic glass exhibits superior pulse shape discrimination performance.

Abstract

An organic glass scintillator developed by Sandia National Laboratories was characterized in terms of its light output and pulse shape discrimination (PSD) properties and compared to commercial liquid (EJ-309) and plastic (EJ-276) organic scintillators. The electron light output was determined through relative comparison of the $^{137}$Cs Compton edge location. The proton light yield was measured using a double time-of-flight technique at the 88-Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Using a tunable broad-spectrum neutron source and an array of pulse-shape-discriminating observation scintillators, a continuous measurement of the proton light yield was performed for EJ-309 (200 keV$-$3.2 MeV), EJ-276 (170 keV$-$4.9 MeV), and the organic glass (50 keV$-$20 MeV). Finally, the PSD properties of the organic glass, EJ-309, and EJ-276 were evaluated using an AmBe source and compared via a figure-of-merit metric. The organic glass exhibited a higher electron light output than both EJ-309 and EJ-276. Its proton light yield and PSD performance were comparable to EJ-309 and superior to that of EJ-276. With these performance characteristics, the organic glass scintillator is well poised to replace current state-of-the-art PSD-capable scintillators in a range of fast neutron detection applications.