X-ray detection capability of bismuth-loaded plastic scintillators

Masanori Koshimizu (1) , Guillaume H. V. Bertrand (2) , Matthieu Hamel (2) , Shunji Kishimoto (3) , Rie Haruki (3) , Fumihiko Nishikido (4) , Takayuki Yanagida (5) , Yutaka Fujimoto (1) , Keisuke Asai (1)

1 Tohoku University [Sendai]
2 LCAE - Laboratoire Capteurs et Architectures Electroniques
3 NIMS - National Institute for Materials Science
4 MIC - Molecular Imaging Center [Chiba]
5 NAIST - Nara Institute of Science and Technology - Graduate School of Information Science

We evaluated the high-energy X-ray detection capabilities of Bi-loaded plastic scintillators. The detection efficiency for 67.4 keV X-rays was successfully increased by increasing the Bi concentration. The detection efficiency of a plastic scintillator loaded with 10 wt % Bi was comparable to that of a commercially available plastic scintillator loaded with 5 wt % Pb, NE-142. A subnanosecond time resolution was achieved, and no long scintillation component appeared with Bi loading. These results indicate that Bi loading is an effective method of enhancing the detection efficiency for high-energy X-rays while preserving the timing properties of plastic scintillators.

Keywords: nuclear instrumentation; plastic scintillator; detector; AVALANCHE PHOTODIODE DETECTOR; Bi-loaded plastic scintillators; high-energy X-ray detection; radioactivity; ionizing radiation; X-rays; instrumentation

Domains: Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Atomic Physics [physics.atom-ph]; Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det]

Masanori Koshimizu, Guillaume H. V. Bertrand, Matthieu Hamel, Shunji Kishimoto, Rie Haruki, et al.. X-ray detection capability of bismuth-loaded plastic scintillators. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 2015, 54 (10), pp.102202. ⟨10.7567/JJAP.54.102202⟩. ⟨cea-01721876⟩