Neutron induced radiation damage of plastic scintillators for the upgrade of the Tile Calorimeter of the ATLAS detector.

International Workshop on Discovery Physics at the LHC

Mdhluli, J.E.^1,2 ; Jivan, H.^1 ; Erasmus, R.^1 ; Davydov, Yu I.^3 ; Baranov, V.^3 ; Mthembu, S.^1 ; Mellado, B.^1 ; Sideras-Haddad, E.^1,2 ; Solovyanov, O.^4 ; Sandrock, C.^1 ; Peter, G.^1 ; Tlou, S.^1 ; Khanye, N.^1 ; Tjale, B.^1

University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg, Braamfontein

2000, South Africa^1

DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials, South Africa^2

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia^3

Institute for High Energy Physics, Protvino

142281, Russia^4

关键词: ATLAS detectors;    Flux densities;    High-energy neutron;    Nuclear research;    Plastic scintillator;    Poly vinyl toluenes;    Radiation environments;    Tile calorimeters;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/878/1/012008/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/878/1/012008

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

With the prediction that the plastic scintillators in the gap region of the Tile Calorimeter will sustain a significantly large amount of radiation damage during the HL-LHC run time, the current plastic scintillators will need to be replaced during the phase 2 upgrade in 2018. The scintillators in the gap region were exposed to a radiation environment of up to 10 kGy/year during the first run of data taking and with the luminosity being increased by a factor of 10, the radiation environment will be extremely harsh. We report on the radiation damage to the optical properties of plastic scintillators following irradiation using a neutron beam of the IBR-2 pulsed reactor in Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna. A comparison is drawn between polyvinyl toluene based commercial scintillators EJ200, EJ208 and EJ260 as well as polystyrene based scintillator from Kharkov. The samples were subjected to irradiation with high energy neutrons and a flux density range of 1 × 106-7.7 × 106. Light transmission, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and light yield testing was performed to characterize the damage induced in the samples. Preliminary results from the tests done indicate a minute change in the optical properties of the scintillators with further studies underway to gain a better understanding of the interaction between neutrons with plastic scintillators.