Development of a Bi-solvent Liquid Scintillator with Slow Light Emission

TL;DR

This paper reports on developing a new bi-solvent liquid scintillator with slow light emission for neutrino detectors, comparing its properties with existing scintillators, optimizing wavelength shifters, and studying pulse-shape discrimination and purification methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel bi-solvent scintillator with slow light emission, optimized wavelength shifters, and evaluates its performance for future neutrino detection.

Findings

The new scintillator exhibits comparable or improved scintillation efficiency.

Enhanced pulse-shape discrimination capabilities were demonstrated.

Effective purification methods for the co-solvent were developed.

Abstract

One of the most promising approaches for the next generation of neutrino experiments is the realization of large hybrid Cherenkov/scintillation detectors made possible by recent innovations in photodetection technology and liquid scintillator chemistry. The development of a potentially suitable future detector liquid with particularly slow light emission is discussed in the present publication. This cocktail is compared with respect to its fundamental characteristics (scintillation efficiency, transparency, and time profile of light emission) with liquid scintillators currently used in large-scale neutrino detectors. In addition, the optimization of the admixture of wavelength shifters for a scintillator with particularly high light emission is presented. Furthermore, the pulse-shape discrimination capabilities of the novel medium was studied using a pulsed particle accelerator driven neutron source. Beyond that, purification methods based on column chromatography and fractional vacuum distillation for the co-solvent DIN (Diisopropylnaphthalene) are discussed.