SPORT: A new sub-nanosecond time-resolved instrument to study swift heavy ion-beam induced luminescence - Application to luminescence degradation of a fast plastic scintillator

NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION B-BEAM INTERACTIONS WITH MATERIALS AND ATOMS

卷:297

Article

Gardes, E.^1,2  Balanzat, E.¹  Ban-d'Etat, B.¹  Cassimi, A.¹  Durantel, F.¹  Grygiel, C.¹  Madi, T.¹  Monnet, I.¹  Ramillon, J. -M.¹  Ropars, F.¹  Lebius, H.¹ 

[1] Univ Caen Basse Normandie, CIMAP, CEA, CNRS,ENSICAEN, F-14070 Caen 5, France

[2] Univ Orleans, CNRS, ISTO, F-45071 Orleans 02, France

关键词: Swift heavy ion irradiation;    Time-resolved spectroscopy;    Ion-beam induced luminescence;    Radiation hardness;    Plastic scintillator;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.nimb.2012.12.039

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

We developed a new sub-nanosecond time-resolved instrument to study the dynamics of UV-visible luminescence under high stopping power heavy ion irradiation. We applied our instrument, called SPORT, on a fast plastic scintillator (BC-400) irradiated with 27-MeV Ar ions having high mean electronic stopping power of 2.6 MeV/mu m. As a consequence of increasing permanent radiation damages with increasing ion fluence, our investigations reveal a degradation of scintillation intensity together with, thanks to the time-resolved measurement, a decrease in the decay constant of the scintillator. This combination indicates that luminescence degradation processes by both dynamic and static quenching, the latter mechanism being predominant. Under such high density excitation, the scintillation deterioration of BC-400 is significantly enhanced compared to that observed in previous investigations, mainly performed using light ions. The observed non-linear behaviour implies that the dose at which luminescence starts deteriorating is not independent on particles' stopping power, thus illustrating that the radiation hardness of plastic scintillators can be strongly weakened under high excitation density in heavy ion environments. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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