Abstract
The results of irradiation tests on Ce-doped sol-gel silica using x- and γ-rays up to 10kGy are reported in order to investigate the radiation hardness of this material for high-energy physics applications. Sol-gel silica fibers with Ce concentrations of 0.0125 and 0.05mol.% are characterized by means of optical absorption and attenuation length measurements before and after irradiation. The two different techniques give comparable results, evidencing the formation of a main broad radiation-induced absorption band, peaking at about 2.2eV, related to radiation-induced color centers. The results are compared with those obtained on bulk silica. This study reveals that an improvement of the radiation hardness of Ce-doped silica fibers can be achieved by reducing Ce content inside the fiber core, paving the way for further material development.
Highlights
This study reveals that an improvement of the radiation hardness of Ce-doped silica fibers can be achieved by reducing Ce content inside the fiber core, paving the way for further material development
An extremely good radiation hardness is a crucial property of the material for such applications: the most challenging requirements are expected in the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider phase (HL-LHC) [7], in which the radiationinduced absorption coefficient of the scintillator material should be kept below 1-2 m−1 even after a cumulated dose of 300 kGy
We present a detailed study of the optical properties under irradiation and of the radiation resistance of Ce-doped silica fibers, as the results of irradiation tests using γ-rays from a 60Co source and X-rays up to an integrated dose of several kGy
Summary
Radiation hardness of Ce-doped sol-gel silica fibers for High Energy Physics applications. Preliminary results obtained on Pr-doped sol-gel silica fibers showed the presence of similar absorption contributions, even more evident than in the case of the here reported Ce-doped fibers This broad band, here put in evidence by the high aspect ratio of fiber samples, could be more likely related to intrinsic defects, present independently from the doping [10, 15]. The irradiated samples show an evident increase of the absorption coefficient in the 1.5 - 3.0 eV energy range, due to the formation of a very broad radiation-induced absorption structure: the maximum absorption coefficient evaluated at 2.2 eV is 0.07 cm−1 and 0.14 cm−1 for the SiO2:0.0125% Ce- and SiO2:0.05% Ce-doped fibers respectively This new absorption contribution is superimposed to the typical RL spectrum of Ce3+, leading to a reduction of the transmitted scintillation light. The attenuation length curves follow a single exponential decay according to Eq 1, where Sright and Sle f t are the signal intensities recorded by the two photodetectors, latt is the attenuation length of the fiber, defined as the distance at which the incident beam is reduced of a factor
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