The use of efficient wavelength-shifters from the vacuum-ultraviolet to the photosensors range of sensitivity is a key feature in detectors for Dark Matter search and neutrino physics based on liquid argon scintillation detection. Thin film of Tetrap
henyl-butadiene (TPB) deposited onto the surface delimiting the active volume of the detector and/or onto the photosensor optical window is the most common solution in current and planned experiments. Detector design and response can be evaluated and correctly simulated only when the properties of the optical system in use (TPB film + substrate) are fully understood. Characterization of the optical system requires specific, sometimes sophisticated optical methodologies. In this paper the main features of TPB coatings on different, commonly used substrates is reported, as a result of two independent campaigns of measurements at the specialized optical metrology labs of ENEA and University of Tor Vergata. Measured features include TPB emission spectra with lineshape and relative intensity variation recorded as a function of the film thickness and for the first time down to LAr temperature, as well as optical reflectance and transmittance spectra of the TPB coated substrates in the wavelength range of the TPB emission.
The spectrophotometric characterization of high efficiency, optically-active samples such as light-emitting organic bulks and thin films can be problematic because their broad-band luminescence is detected together with the monochromatic transmitted
and reflected signals, hence perturbing measurements of optical transmittance and reflectance at wavelengths within the photoexcitation band. As a matter of fact, most commercial spectrophotometers apply spectral filtering before the light beam reaches the sample, not after it. In this Report, we introduce and discuss the method we have developed to correct photometric spectra that are perturbed by photoluminescence.
We carried out numerical calculations by an extended-Hueckel program in order to check the analytical results reported in the preceding Part I and Part II. We typically consider alkali halide clusters composed of some tens of constituent atoms to cal
culate electronic energies under static conditions or versus the displacements of particular atoms. Among other things, the off-center displacement of substitutional Li+ impurity in most alkali halides is evidenced. The trigonometric profile of the rotational barriers is also confirmed for KCl.
