Nonlinear characteristics of several scintillators studied by 70 MeV electron pulse excitation

• Published in: Applied radiation and isotopes Vol. 156; p. 108992
• Main Authors: Wei, Kun, Hei, Dongwei, Weng, Xiufeng, Tan, Xinjian, Liu, Jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2020
• Subjects: Electron pulses; Energy threshold; Nonlinearity; Scintillators; Energy threshold; Nonlinearity; Scintillators; Electron pulses
• ISSN: 0969-8043; 1872-9800
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2019.108992

Scintillators form the chief device for radiation detection, and the study of their characteristics and their related theories is very significant. Specifically, the nonlinear behavior of scintillators under high excitation density has been closely studied owing to its direct influence on the measurements of radiation. We propose a new method to calibrate the nonlinearity of scintillators based on the electron pulse generated by a linear electron accelerator. The nonlinear light yield of several commonly used scintillators versus fluence of 70 MeV electrons in a 10 ps pulse has been measured by adjusting the charge of electron pulses, and the deposition energy threshold is also simulated and calculated. The results show that the deposition energy threshold for the occurrence of 5% nonlinearity is highest for two types of oxide scintillators, viz. LSO and PbWO4, followed by fluoride scintillators, viz. BaF2 and CeF3, and the threshold for a plastic scintillator EJ232 is lowest. •The nonlinear light yield of several common scintillators versus fluence of 70 MeV electrons has been first measured.•The deposition energy threshold of several common scintillators excited by 70 MeV electron pulses has been calculated.•We explained our results with known physical mechanism, which can be a reference and comparison for related research.