Novel scintillators and silicon photomultipliers for nuclear physics and applications

[摘要] Until comparatively recently, scintillator detectors were seen as an old-fashioned tool of nuclear physics with more attention being given to areas such as gamma-ray tracking using high-purity germanium detectors. Next-generation scintillator detectors, such as lanthanum bromide, which were developed for the demands of space science and gamma- ray telescopes, are found to have strong applicability to low energy nuclear physics. Their excellent timing resolution makes them very suitable for fast timing measurements and their much improved energy resolution compared to conventional scintillators promises to open up new avenues in nuclear physics research which were presently hard to access. Such »medium-resolution» spectroscopy has broad interest across several areas of contemporary interest such as the study of nuclear giant resonances. In addition to the connections to space science, it is striking that the demands of contemporary medical imaging have strong overlap with those of experimental nuclear physics. An example is the interest in PET-MRI combined imaging which requires putting scintillator detectors in a high magnetic field environment. This has led to strong advances in the area of silicon photomultipliers, a solid-state replacement for photomultiplier tubes, which are insensitive to magnetic fields. Broad application to nuclear physics of this technology may be foreseen.

[发布机构] Department of Physics, University of York, York; YO10 5DD, United Kingdom^1

[效力级别] 工业技术 [学科分类] 工业工程学

[关键词] Gamma ray telescope;Gamma-ray tracking;High magnetic fields;High purity germanium detectors;Photo multiplier tube;Scintillator detector;Silicon photomultiplier;Timing resolutions