A method to measure the quenching factor for recoil energy of oxygen in bismuth germanium oxide scintillators

TL;DR

This paper measures the quenching factor for oxygen recoil energy in bismuth germanium oxide scintillators, which is crucial for understanding their response in rare-event detection like dark matter searches.

Contribution

It introduces a method to measure the oxygen recoil quenching factor in BGO crystals using monoenergetic neutrons, advancing detector response characterization.

Findings

Measured the quenching factor as a function of recoil energy.

Provided data relevant for dark matter and neutrino detection.

Enhanced understanding of BGO scintillator response.

Abstract

Bismuth germanium oxide ($\rm Bi_{4} Ge_{3} O_{12}$, BGO) scintillation crystals are widely used as detectors in the fields of particle physics and astrophysics due to their high density, and thus higher efficiency for gamma-ray detection. Owing to their good chemical stability, they can be used in any environment. For rare-event searches, such as dark matter and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, BGO crystals are essential to comprehend the response of nuclear recoil. In this study, we have analyzed the events of neutron elastic scattering with oxygen in BGO crystals. Then, we have measured the quenching factor for oxygen recoil energy in the BGO crystal as a function of recoil energy by using a monoenergetic neutron source.