No Arabic abstract
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.
The irradiation with fast ions with kinetic energies of > 10 MeV leads to the deposition of a high amount of energy along their trajectory (up to several ten keV/nm). The energy is mainly transferred to the electronic subsystem and induces different secondary processes of excitations which result in significant material modifications. A new setup to study these ion induced effects on surfaces will be described in this paper. The setup combines a variable irradiation chamber with different techniques of surface characterizations like scanning probe microscopy, time-of-flight secondary ion and neutral mass spectrometry, as well as low energy electron diffraction under ultra high vacuum conditions, and is mounted at a beamline of the universal linear accelerator (UNILAC) of the GSI facility in Darmstadt, Germany. Here, samples can be irradiated with high-energy ions with a total kinetic energy up to several GeVs under different angles of incidence. Our setup enables the preparation and in-situ analysis of different types of sample systems ranging from metals to insulators. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry enables us to study the chemical composition of the surface, while scanning probe microscopy allows a detailed view into the local electrical and morphological conditions of the sample surface down to atomic scales. With the new setup particle emission during irradiation as well as persistent modifications of the surface after irradiation can thus be studied. We present first data obtained with the new setup, including a novel measuring protocol for time-of-flight mass spectrometry with the GSI UNILAC accelerator.
Detector developments are currently enabling new capabilities in the field of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We have investigated the limits of a hybrid pixel detector, Medipix3, to record dynamic, time varying, electron signals. Operating with an energy of 60keV, we have utilised electrostatic deflection to oscillate electron beam position on the detector. Adopting a pump-probe imaging strategy we have demonstrated that temporal resolutions three orders of magnitude smaller than are available for typically used TEM imaging detectors are possible. Our experiments have shown that energy deposition of the primary electrons in the hybrid pixel detector limits the overall temporal resolution. Through adjustment of user specifiable thresholds or the use of charge summing mode, we have obtained images composed from summing 10,000s frames containing single electron events to achieve temporal resolution less than 100ns. We propose that this capability can be directly applied to studying repeatable material dynamic processes but also to implement low-dose imaging schemes in scanning transmission electron microscopy.
Potential applications of Zr/Al ODS alloys vests on the irradiation stability of the Y4Zr3O12 dispersoids. Fundamental studies to identify the type of defects are important in order to recognize pathways for damage alleviation. In this context, studies relating to identification of point defects and their clusters by in-situ ionoluminescence spectroscopy were taken up. The ionoluminescence spectrum acquired during 100 keV He+ ion irradiation shows two prominent bands, at 330 nm and 415 nm. Using density functional theory calculations with HSE06 hybrid exchange correlation functional, the luminescent bands have been identified to be arising due to native and irradiation induced oxygen vacancy defects in charged and neutral configurations.
We developed a segmented reactor-antineutrino detector made of plastic scintillators for application as a tool in nuclear safeguards inspection and performed mostly unmanned field operations at a commercial power plant reactor. At a position outside the reactor building, we measured the difference in reactor antineutrino flux above the ground when the reactor was active and inactive.
The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detector (HERD) facility is planned to go onboard Chinas Space Station, planned to be operational starting in around 2025 for about 10 years. The main scientific objectives of HERD are the search for signals of dark matter annihilation products, precise cosmic electron/positron spectrum and measurements of anisotropy up to 10 TeV, precise cosmic ray spectrum and composition measurements up to the knee energy (1 PeV), and high energy $gamma$-ray monitoring and survey. HERD consists of a 3D cubic crystals calorimeter (CALO) surrounded by microstrip silicon trackers (STKs) and scintillating fiber trackers (FIT) and by a Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD) for $gamma$-ray veto and ion charge measurement. A PSD prototype consisting of a scintillator tile readout by two arrays of SiPMs on opposite sides has been tested with proton and C ion beam at the CNAO (Centro Nazionale Adroterapia Oncologica) in Pavia, (Italy). Preliminary results on charge resolution are presented.