Development of BaF2crystals for future HEP experiments at the intensity frontiers

Abstract

Barium fluoride (BaF 2 ) is a fast inorganic crystal scintillator. Because of its fast scintillation with sub nanosecond decay time it is considered as a candidate crystal for a very fast crystal calorimetry for future HEP experiments at the intensity frontier. Two crucial issues of BaF 2 application are its radiation hardness and its slow scintillation component with 600 ns decay time, which causes pile-up. BaF 2 crystals produced by different vendors were irradiated by γ-rays up to 120 Mrad, and show good radiation hardness. A 20 cm long rare earth doped BaF 2 crystal grown by BGRI shows promising performance in slow component suppression.