Scintillation Pulse Research Articles

Improvement of the energy resolution and non-proportional light response of CsI:Tl to gamma radiation using dynamic integration times

The analysis of the light response of thallium-doped cesium iodide to gamma radiation was performed on single scintillation waveforms recorded using a digital oscilloscope. As an alternative to classical pulse processing procedures, the use of dynamic integration times instead of fixed shaping/integration times was demonstrated. The dynamic integration time, changeable with the amplitudes of the CsI:Tl scintillation pulses, allowed to optimise the light collection with simultaneous minimization of a noise contribution. It was shown that for low-energy γ-rays (22 keV–60 keV), the scintillation pulses should be integrated using shorter integration times (approximately 7 μs–14 μs), whereas for higher energies (662 keV–835 keV), the best energy resolution was achieved with integration times of about 28 μs–30 μs. The approach also allowed for the registration of more proportional CsI:Tl light responses to deposited X and gamma radiation in the energy range of 22 keV–835 keV.

Wavelet-based digital pulse-shape method for discrimination between neutron and gamma-rays with organic scintillation detectors

Organic scintillator detectors are central instruments in many applications involving fast neutrons. Many organic scintillator detectors exhibit pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) properties and are widely used to discriminate between neutron events and background gamma rays. PSD methods have been traditionally implemented using analog electronic circuits; however, in recent years, digital techniques have proven to outperform analog methods in areas such as count rate capability. Many digital PSD algorithms with various levels of achievement have been proposed, and those based on the wavelet transform of digitized scintillation pulses have shown great promise for operation at high event rates, where the pulse pile-up effect limits the performance of PSD methods. However, the proposed wavelet-based PSD methods involve intricate calculations that limit their practical use. In this work, we describe a modified version of the wavelet-based PSD methods that offers significant simplification of the PSD process while still producing excellent PSD performance. The method employs the Haar wavelet transform, which is the simplest available wavelet function and is easily implemented on digital hardware, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA). We describe the details of the method, and different aspects of its performance are experimentally demonstrated using an experimental setup comprising a NE213 liquid scintillation detector. A figure-of-merit (FOM) of 1.47 ± 0.07 is achieved with an energy threshold of 500 keVee (electron equivalent energy). An excellent FOM value (1.32) is achieved with a short pulse processing window of only 26 ns, indicating the resilience of the method against the pulse pile-up effect.

Optimized α/β pulse shape discrimination in Borexino

Borexino could efficiently distinguish between α and β radiation in its liquid scintillator by the characteristic time profile of its scintillation pulse. This α/β discrimination, first demonstrated on the ton scale in the counting test facility prototype, was used throughout the lifetime of the experiment between 2007 and 2021. With this method, the α events are identified and subtracted from the solar neutrino events similar to β. This is particularly important in liquid scintillators, as the α scintillation is strongly quenched. In Borexino, the prominent Po210 decay peak was a background in the energy range of electrons scattered from Be7 solar neutrinos. Optimal α/β discrimination was achieved with a , with a higher ability to leverage the timing information of the scintillation photons detected by the photomultiplier tubes. An event-by-event, high efficiency, stable, and uniform pulse shape discrimination was essential in characterizing the spatial distribution of background in the detector. This benefited most Borexino measurements, including solar neutrinos in the pp chain and the first direct observation of the CNO cycle in the Sun. This paper presents key milestones in α/β discrimination in Borexino as a term of comparison for current and future large liquid scintillator detectors. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Ho3+ codoping of GGAG:Ce: a detailed analysis of acceleration of scintillation response and scintillation efficiency loss.

In this study, we investigate the effects of Ho3+ codoping on the luminescence and scintillation properties of GGAG:Ce, with a particular focus on timing properties and scintillator efficiency. The research reveals that Ho3+ codoping and subsequent resonant energy transfer from Ce3+ to Ho3+ can significantly reduce the 5d1 excited state decay time of Ce3+ and shorten scintillation pulses of GGAG:Ce registered by using photomultipliers, although this reduces scintillator efficiency as well. The study presents a detailed analysis of the loss of scintillator efficiency due to Ho3+ codoping, identifying the most significant loss pathways and estimating their impact. The findings suggest that Ho3+ codoping is an effective method for accelerating the scintillation response of GGAG:Ce. Furthermore, the study presents a high level of consistency of the Ce3+ kinetics with the Inokuti-Hirayama model and with results obtained in the previous studies on similar systems, demonstrating the predictability of the effect of RE3+ codoping on scintillator properties.

Scintillator Geometrical Considerations for Detectors Based on Hexagonal SiPMs

A truncated icosahedron system with hexagonal detectors has been previously proposed as an approach to the ideal spherical PET scanner. In this work, we explore by Monte Carlo simulations the role of hexagonal scintillator crystals in terms of light yield, scintillation pulse decay time and energy resolution by comparison with three geometries: square and triangular prisms and cylinder. The relevance of the reflector type (diffuse and specular) and finish (polished and rough) of the scintillation borders was also considered. The light yield for the hexagon is higher by approximately 2% and 4% depending on the finish and reflector type in comparison to the square. The energy resolution is between 0.2% and 1% better for the hexagon. Polished walls with specular reflector have the finest energy resolution. The difference in the pulse decay time among geometries is not determining. The light yield and energy resolution were validated experimentally for rough walls and diffuse reflector. A hexagonal scintillation array of 181 crystals of 1.25 mm of edge was finally manufactured. The flood field image read with four multiplexing channels is presented. The detector offers an excellent crystal identification with a mean peak-to-valley ratio over 13 and an energy resolution of 11.5%.

Bulk Polystyrene-BaF2 Composite Scintillators for Highly Efficient Radiation Detection

Organic–inorganic composite scintillators, demonstrating advantages of easy large-area preparation and a high detection efficiency, have shown enormous potential application prospects in radiation detection and imaging. In this study, bulk polystyrene (PS) composite scintillators were successfully prepared by embedding inorganic BaF2 particles with a loading amount of up to 80 wt% during the polymerization process of the plastic scintillator. The inorganic BaF2 particles were uniformly dispersed in the organic matrix. With the increase of the loading amounts of BaF2 particles, the X-ray-excited luminescence intensity of the PS-BaF2 composite scintillators was about eight times higher than that of the commercial pure plastic scintillator. The scintillation counts under the gamma ray (59.5 KeV) irradiation also showed that the detection efficiency was obviously enhanced by BaF2 particle loading. More importantly, their scintillation pulse retains the decay kinetics of the organic matrix without loading the slow-decay component of BaF2. This work provides a promising solution for the application of the PS-BaF2 composite scintillator in high-efficiency radiation detection and large-area imaging.

Improvement of phoswich detector-based β+/γ-ray discrimination algorithm with deep learning.

Positron probes can accurately localize malignant tumors by directly detecting positrons emitted from positron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals that accumulate in malignant tumors. In the conventional method for direct positron detection, multilayer scintillator detection and pulse shape discrimination techniques are used. However, some γ-rays cannot be distinguished by conventional methods. Accordingly, these γ-rays are misidentified as positrons, which may increase the error rate of positron detection. To analyze the energy distribution in each scintillator of the multilayer scintillator detector to distinguish true positrons and γ-rays and to improve the positron detection algorithm by discriminating true and false positrons. We used Autoencoder, an unsupervised deep learning architecture, to obtain the energy distribution data in each scintillator of the multilayer scintillator detector. The Autoencoder was trained to separate the combined signals generated from the multilayer scintillator detector into two signals of each scintillator. An energy window was then applied to the energy distribution obtained using the trained Autoencoder to distinguish true positrons from false positrons. Finally, the performance of the proposed method and conventional positron detection algorithm was evaluated in terms of the sensitivity and error rate for positron detection. The energy distribution map obtained using the trained Autoencoder was proven to be similar to that of the simulated results. Furthermore, the proposed method demonstrated a 29.79% (+0.42%p) increase in positron detection sensitivity compared to the conventional method, both having an equal error rate of 0.48%. However, when both methods were set to have the same sensitivity of 1.83%, the proposed method had an error rate that was 25.0% (-0.16%p) lower than that of the conventional method. We proposed and developed an Autoencoder-based positron detection algorithm that can discriminate between true and false positrons with a smaller error rate than conventional methods. We verified that the proposed method could increase the positron detection sensitivity while maintaining a low error rate compared to the conventional method. If the proposed algorithm is implemented in handheld positron detection probes or cameras, diseases such as cancers can be more accurately localized in a shorter time compared with using traditional methods.

Dark matter directionality approach using ZnWO$_4$ crystal scintillators

The development of low-background anisotropic detectors can offer a unique way to study those Dark Matter (DM) candidate particles able to induce nuclear recoils through the directionality technique. Among the anisotropic scintillators, the ZnWO_{4}4 has unique features and is an excellent candidate for the purposes. Both the light output and the scintillation pulse shape depend on the impinging direction of heavy particles with respect to the crystallographic axes and can supply two independent modes to study the directionality and discriminate \gamma/\betaγ/β radiation. Measurements to study the anisotropic and scintillation performances of ZnWO_44 are reported.

High Count Rate Peak-Based PET Detector

Determining the deposited energy of a gamma interaction in a scintillator is of vital importance for PET imaging. In this paper, a peak-based PET detector that simultaneously attain a high count rate is proposed. This detector exploits a known fact that a pulse peak is roughly linear with its energy. Therefore, a fast peak detector is designed for energy characterization using peaks directly acquired from scintillation pulses without any pulse shaping techniques. The key design of this peak detector is the utilization of comparators rather than amplifiers, along with a turbocharged current source, so as to increase the slew rate and equivalently curtail the time it requires to catch the peak of a fast scintillation pulse in as few as around 40 ns. A PET detector prototype is implemented based on the designed circuit and experiments are carried out extensively to evaluate its performance. The prototype achieves an energy resolution of 14.8%@511KeV and a coincidence resolution time of 345 ps.

Influence of fluorescent dopants on the vat photopolymerization of acrylate-based plastic scintillators for application in neutron/gamma pulse shape discrimination.

Plastic scintillators, a class of solid-state materials used for radiation detection, were additively manufactured with vat photopolymerization. The photopolymer resins consisted of a primary dopant and a secondary dopant dissolved in a bisphenol A ethoxylate diacrylate-based matrix. The absorptive dopants significantly influence important print parameters, for example, secondary dopants decrease the light penetration depth by a factor > 12 ×. The primary dopant 2,5-diphenyloxazole had minimal impact on the printing process even when loaded at 25 % by mass of the resin. Working curve measurements, which relate energy dose to cure depth, were performed as a function of feature size to further assess the influence of dopants. Photopatterns smaller than 150 μm width had apparent increases in critical energy dose compared to larger photopatterns, while all resins maintained printed features in line gratings with 50 μm of separation. Printed scintillator monoliths were compared to scintillators cast by traditional molding, demonstrating that the layer-by-layer printing process does not decrease scintillation response. A maximum light output of 31 % of a benchmark plastic scintillator (EJ-200) and successful pulse shape discrimination were achieved with 20 % by mass 2,5-diphenyloxazole as the primary dopant and 0.1 % by mass 9,9-dimethyl-2,7-distyrylfluorene as the secondary dopant in printed scintillator samples.

Prompt Photofission Neutron Detection in Depleted Uranium

The detection of prompt photofission neutrons during active interrogation is a strong indication of the presence of special nuclear materials. However, the high-energy photons used for interrogation create a very challenging radiation environment for the detection of prompt fission signatures. These challenges include detector saturation and pulse pile-up. Additionally, there is an elevated neutron background that further challenges the detection of prompt fission neutrons. This background is produced because of (\ensuremath{\gamma}, Xn) photonuclear reactions in the surrounding high-Z materials. Here, we demonstrate the detection of prompt photofission neutrons in these challenging environments. Depleted uranium (DU) and lead targets are interrogated with bremsstrahlung photons produced by a 9-MV electron linear accelerator. Fast neutrons are detected with trans-stilbene organic detectors, and scintillation pulses are analyzed using a previously developed and demonstrated artificial neural network system. We observe a 5 times higher photoneutron count rate when the lead target is replaced with the DU target. Additionally, we observe a difference in the photoneutron light-output distributions of lead and DU. This difference in the measured distributions is due to the difference in the photoneutron-energy spectra; DU photoneutrons are emitted with (\ensuremath{\gamma}, n) and watt-energy spectra, whereas lead photoneutrons are emitted with only the (\ensuremath{\gamma}, n) spectrum.

Interplanetary scintillation and pulsar pulse statistics

ABSTRACT The effect of interplanetary plasma on pulsed pulsar radiation passing through is considered. The pulses of two rotating radio transients (J0609+16 and J1132+25) and a pulsar (B0320+39) detected on the Large Phased Array (Pushchino observatory) were analysed. It is shown that in observations at the frequency of 111 MHz, on elongations of 20°–40°, both an increase and a decrease in the number of received pulses are observed. The change in the number of pulses is explained by the distortion of the energy distribution of pulses due to interplanetary scintillation. These changes in the number of observed pulses are in qualitative agreement with the expected dependence of the scintillation index on the observed sources elongation. Analytical expressions are obtained that allow estimating the effective modulation index from observations of individual pulses for the power distribution of pulses by energy.

A CNN-based four-layer DOI encoding detector using LYSO and BGO scintillators for small animal PET imaging

Objective. We propose a novel four-layer depth-of-interaction (DOI) encoding phoswich detector using lutetium–yttrium oxyothosilicate (LYSO) and bismuth germanate (BGO) scintillator crystal arrays for high sensitivity and high spatial resolution small animal PET imaging. Approach. The detector was comprised of a stack of four alternating LYSO and BGO scintillator crystal arrays coupled to an 8 × 8 multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) array and read out by a PETsys TOFPET2 application specific integrated circuit. The four layers from the top (gamma ray entrance) to the bottom (facing the MPPC) consisted of a 24 × 24 array of 0.99 × 0.99 × 6 mm3 LYSO crystals, a 24 × 24 array of 0.99 × 0.99 × 6 mm3 BGO crystals, a 16 × 16 array of 1.53 × 1.53 × 6 mm3 LYSO crystals and a 16 × 16 array of 1.53 × 1.53 × 6 mm3 BGO crystals. Main results. Events that occurred in the LYSO and BGO layers were first separated by measuring the pulse energy (integrated charge) and duration (time over threshold (ToT)) from the scintillation pulses. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) were then used to distinguish between the top and lower LYSO layers and between the upper and bottom BGO layers. Measurements with the prototype detector showed that our proposed method successfully identified events from all four layers. The CNN models achieved a classification accuracy of 91% for distinguishing the two LYSO layers and 81% for distinguishing the two BGO layers. The measured average energy resolution was 13.1% ± 1.7% for the top LYSO layer, 34.0% ± 6.3% for the upper BGO layer, 12.3% ± 1.3% for the lower LYSO layer, and 33.9% ± 6.9% for the bottom BGO layer. The timing resolution between each individual layer (from the top to the bottom) and a single crystal reference detector was 350 ps, 2.8 ns, 328 ps, and 2.1 ns respectively. Significance. In conclusion, the proposed four-layer DOI encoding detector achieved high performance and is an attractive choice for next-generation high sensitivity and high spatial resolution small animal positron emission tomography systems.

An efficient digital pulse processing approach for identification of BGO and LSO scintillator crystals

Identification and discrimination between BGO and LSO scintillators is a fundamental target for handling parallax error within positron emission tomography (PET) applications by depth of interaction. An approach is built for discrimination and identification of BGO and LSO scintillator crystals. This approach is tested using a simulated BGO and LSO pulses. A Matlab Simulink model is implemented for simulation and creation of BGO and LSO scintillation pulses. The simulated pulses depend on 22Na radiation source. The suggested approach has two different algorithms. The first algorithm uses both 1D-Walsh ordered fast Walsh-Hadamard transform (1WFWHT) and fast Chebyshev transform (FCHT) for extracting the features of crystal pulses. The optimum features are selected from 1WFWHT and FCHT using one of three optimization techniques that are binary dragonfly optimization (BDA), binary atom search optimization (BASO) and binary Harris Hawk optimization (BHHO). These optimized features are trained and tested using one of three based classifiers. These classifiers are Naive Bayes classifier (NBC), hierarchical prototype-based (HP) classifier and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) classification. The ANFIS classifier achieves the best accuracy with all optimum (BASO, BDF and BHH) FCHT features. However, the NB classifier introduces the highest accuracy with all optimum (BASO, BDF and BHH) FWHT 1D features. The second algorithm uses the conventional neural network (CNN) for extracting the pulse features. Then, the deep neural network (DNN) is applied for training and testing of the captured pulses. The suggested algorithms are verified and compared in respect of statistical measures. The compared results confirm that the best accuracy and identification rate is accomplished using DNN algorithm. Besides, the DNN has better results compared to conventional classification techniques with optimum feature selection techniques in respect of time consumption. The proposed approach aids in the realisation of overcoming parallax inaccuracy in PET.

ZnO-6LiF/polystyrene composite scintillator for thermal neutron radiation detection.

We report the preparation of the ZnO-6LiF composite with a polystyrene (PS) polymer as a host using the solution mixing process. 6LiF acts as a converter material that absorbs a thermal neutron and produces alpha particles, which excites ZnO micro-particles, resulting in UV-vis photons' emission. The free-standing ZnO-6LiF/PS composite film is coupled to a photomultiplier tube (PMT). 241Am-Be (1Ci) is used as the neutron radiation source for measuring the response. We compared the response of the composite scintillator consisting of (i) natural LiF and (ii) 95% 6Li enriched LiF (6LiF). The increased pulse heights are recorded for 95% 6Li enriched, i.e., 6LiF converter. It confirms the generation of alpha particles after the absorption of a neutron in 6LiF. Furthermore, ZnO and 6LiF are considered in different weight proportions, 2:1, 1:1, and 1:2, keeping the total loading 50% (w/w) of polystyrene. The ZnO:6LiF (1:1)/PS composite showed higher scintillation pulse heights than the other two composites. Repetitive measurements are performed for the ZnO-6LiF(1:1)/PS composite, showing ±5% variation in respective responses. We also investigated the impact of different counting times and source-to-detector responses for the ZnO-6LiF(1:1)/PS composite. The response increases linearly with neutron dose, exhibiting a sensitivity of ∼203 counts/μSv. Neutron measurement counts at different source-to-detector distances have a similar trend as that of neutron dose measured by using a neutron dosimeter. Thus, this work demonstrated the potential of the ZnO-6LiF/PS composite, coupled to PMT for detecting thermal neutron radiation.

A proof-of-concept of cross-luminescent metascintillators: testing results on a BGO:BaF2 metapixel

Objective: Time-of-flight positron emission tomography (PET) is the next frontier in improving the effective sensitivity. To achieve superior timing for time-of-flight PET, combined with high detection efficiency and cost-effectiveness, we have studied the applicability of BaF2 in metascintillators driven by the timing of cross-luminescence photon production. Approach: Based on previous simulation studies of energy sharing and analytic multi-exponential scintillation pulse, as well as sensitivity characteristics, we have experimentally tested a pixel of 3 × 3 × 15 mm3 based on 300 μm BGO and 300 μm BaF2 layers. To harness the deep ultraviolet cross-luminescent light component, which carries improved timing, we use the FBK VUV SiPM. Metascintillator energy sharing is addressed through a double integration approach. Main results: We reach an energy resolution of 22%, comparable to an 18% resolution of simple BGO pixels using the same readout, through the optimized use of the integrals of the metascintillator pulse in energy sharing calculation. We measure the energy sharing extent of each pulse with a resolution of 25% and demonstrate that experimental and simulation results agree well. Based on the energy sharing, a timewalk correction is applied, exhibiting significant improvements for both the coincidence time resolution (CTR) and the shape of the timing histogram. We reach 242 ps CTR for the entire photopeak, while for a subset of 13% of the most shared events, the CTR value improves to 108 ps, comparable to the 3 × 3 × 5 mm3 LYSO:Ce:Ca reference crystal. Significance: While we are considering different ways to improve further these results, this proof-of-concept demonstrates the applicability of cross-luminescence for metascintillator designs through the application of VUV compatible SiPM coupling, and easily implementable digital algorithms. This is the first test of BaF2-based metascintillators of sufficient stoppng power to be included in a PET scanner, demonstrating the industrial applicability of such cross-luminescent metascintillators.

Development of ZnWO4crystal scintillators for rare events search

The ZnWO4crystal scintillator is a promising detector for low counting experiments thanks to the high level of radiopurity and reasonably high optical and scintillation properties. In particular, ZnWO4scintillators can be utilized in the searches for double beta processes, in the investigation of rare alpha decays and Dark Matter. In fact, one of its main characteristics is to be an anisotropic detector. In the case of interaction of heavy particles or nuclear recoils, the light output and the time profile of the scintillation pulse depend on the direction of the particles with respect to the crystal axes; no difference is observed for [Formula: see text] radiation. These anisotropic features can offer a unique possibility to exploit the so-called directionality approach in order to investigate the presence of the Dark Matter candidates which induces nuclear recoils. In fact, their use can overcome the difficulty of detecting extremely short nuclear recoil traces.

Multi-voltage threshold digitizer using a time-varied threshold for photon-counting X-ray security inspection imaging

In this paper, we present a multi-voltage threshold (MVT) digitizer using a time-varied threshold and investigate the feasibility of using this digitizer to develop the data acquisition system for photon-counting X-ray security inspection imaging. This digitizer compares the scintillation pulse with a preset time-varied voltage signal and records the time information of the intersections. As the amplitude of the threshold varies as a function of time, the voltage values of the intersections could be calculated using the recorded time, and the energy information could be extracted via the acquired time–voltage samples. Unlike the constant voltage thresholds MVT digitizer requiring multiple voltage comparators, this method needs only one voltage comparator, which notably reduces the complexity in configuration. We demonstrate the development of such an MVT digitizer using a sine signal threshold and evaluate its energy performance with a yttrium orthosilicate (YSO) scintillator and Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) detector (designed for X-ray detection). The digitizer obtains energy resolutions of 41.4%, 26.6%, and 25.5% at 30, 59.5, and 80.9 keV, respectively. For comparison, the YSO/SiPM detector is also evaluated with a high-speed oscilloscope, and measured energy resolutions are 40.6%, 26.5%, and 25.1% at 30, 59.5, and 80.9 keV, respectively. These results indicate that the proposed MVT digitizer using a time-varied threshold is a promising method for developing a YSO/SiPM-based photon-counting X-ray detector.

2 inch molecular organic glass scintillator for neutron–gamma discrimination

In this manuscript we report on the scintillation properties and pulse shape discrimination (PSD) performance of new organic glass scintillator. Two cylindrical samples with dimensions of 2 × 2 inches were tested. Additionally, this two samples were used in stack configuration in order to measure the PSD characteristics of a sample with a size of 2 × 4 inches. The study covers the measurements of neutron/gamma discrimination capability, emission spectra, photoelectron yield and analysis of the light pulse shapes originating from events related to gamma-rays and fast neutrons. The results were compared to data recorded previously using an EJ-276 plastic scintillator, an EJ-309 liquid scintillator and a stilbene single crystal.

LYSO scintillation light test with an ultra-fast MCP-PMT

The scintillator can be seen as a wavelength shifter which converts the incident particle into a number of photons at certain wavelength. The scintillation light decay time of scintillator is measured by coupling the scintillator with the photosensitive device. With the photoelectric conversion process and waveform sampling technology, the waveform of the signal responding to the scintillation light is obtained. Through exponential fitting, we can obtain the decay time of the scintillator. Traditionally the photosensitive device used to measure the scintillation light have a rise time on the order of nanoseconds. In our experiment, an ultra-fast MCP-PMT with a rise time of 100 ps and a transit time spread of 46 ps at single-photon mode was used to be coupled with the Lu1.8Y2SiO5:Ce (LYSO) scintillator and obtain the scintillation light waveforms. The waveform obtained is not a complete scintillation pulse and the photons in one scintillation event are distinguished and becomes discrete pulses. A new method is introduced to measure the decay time of the scintillator and the result for LYSO with the new method is compared to the results measured with the dynode PMT XP2020.