Anisotropy of Scintillation Response of Anthracene to Neutron Generated Recoil Protons and Carbon Ions

Abstract

The directional anisotropy in the scintillation response of an anthracene crystal to heavy charged particles was investigated. Energetic carbon and hydrogen ions were produced internally by scattering fast neutrons from the constituent nuclei. By use of a two detector coincidence system, the scintillations due to monoenergetic ions recoiling in a particular direction were selected and analyzed. The energies of the ions ranged from 2 to 3.5 MeV for the carbon recoils and from .9 to 7.3 MeV for the hydrogen recoils. Even though there was a wide variation in the average specific energy loss of the heavy charged particles considered, the magnitude of the anisotropy only varied between 39% for the carbon recoils and 20% for the 7.3 MeV hydrogen recoils. The measured hydrogen ion response in a particular direction as a function of energy was found to be approximately described by the formula suggested by Birks, dL/dE = (1 + kBdE/dx)-1, with kB being directionally dependent. The directional carbon ion response appeared to be a linear function of energy over the energy range investigated.