Pulse shape discrimination performance of a pixelated plastic scintillator (EJ-299-34) for a coded-aperture based dual particle imaging system

M.J Cieślak,R Glover,C.J Taylor,K.A.A Gamage

doi:10.1088/1748-0221/14/07/p07017

M.J Cieślak, R Glover + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/14/07/p07017

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Abstract

The pulse shape discrimination performance of a pixelated organic plastic scintillator has been investigated. The scintillator has been built using 169 plastic scintillator blocks (arranged into a 13 × 13 square array) of 2.8 × 2.8 × 15 mm3 each. The scintillator was coupled with a single-channel photomultiplier tube. The scintillator was exposed to a mixed-field environment provided by 252Cf and its pulse shape discrimination capabilities are presented in this paper. Initial results revealed that a 150 MS/s digitising system was insufficient to separate neutrons from gamma-ray photons. Therefore, the experiment was repeated with a 500 MS/s system, which provided improved pulse shape discrimination performance. In order to validate the performance of the pixelated plastic scintillator, it was compared to that of a cylindrical plastic sample. Tests were also carried out in moderated neutron and gamma-ray fields of 252Cf. The results indicate that acceptable levels of pulse shape discrimination are obtained for the case of a pixelated scintillator, when the higher sampling rate digitiser was used.

Highlights

Pulse shape discrimination performance of a pixelated plastic scintillator (EJ-299-34) for a coded-aperture based dual particle imaging system
It can be noticed that only the pulse shape discrimination (PSD) plastic sample (Figure 4b) is capable of separating the neutron events from gamma-ray photons interactions
Further quality assessment of particle separation is only considered for the PSD plastic sample, since the pixelated plastic scintillator sample is deemed not capable of performing neutron/gamma discrimination when the 150 MS/s digitiser is used for data collection

Summary

Introduction

Pulse shape discrimination performance of a pixelated plastic scintillator (EJ-299-34) for a coded-aperture based dual particle imaging system. : The pulse shape discrimination performance of a pixelated organic plastic scintillator has been investigated. The scintillator was exposed to a mixed-field environment provided by 252Cf and its pulse shape discrimination capabilities are presented in this paper. The experiment was repeated with a 500 MS/s system, which provided improved pulse shape discrimination performance. Tests were carried out in moderated neutron and gamma-ray fields of 252Cf. The results indicate that acceptable levels of pulse shape discrimination are obtained for the case of a pixelated scintillator, when the higher sampling rate digitiser was used.

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