SCINTILLATION DETECTOR SYSTEM

AN INNOVATIVE NEW SENSOR IS PROPOSED TO MEASURE BOTH THE SPECTRAL AND TEMPORAL OUTPUT OF LARGE FLASH X-RAY MACHINES OPERATED BY NSWC. USING MULTIPLE SCINTILLATION DETECTORS OPERATING IN PARALLEL, THE PROPOSED INSTRUMENT WILL BE ABLE TO RESOLVE SPECTRAL FEATURES ALL THE WAY UP TO 1.3 MEV WHILE PROVIDING TIME RESOLUTION OF 1 NS OR BETTER. BY ANALYZING EACH SHOT OF THE FXR, EXPERIMENTERS WILL BE ABLE TO BETTER UNDERSTAND AND QUANTIFY MANY PHYSICAL PHENOMENA CURRENTLY NOT WELL KNOWN. THIS WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THE SIMULATION CAPABILITIES OFFERED BY NSWC AND SHOULD LEAD TO NEW AND BETTER WAYS OF TESTING MILITARY SYSTEMS TO THE EFFECTS OF HARD X-RAYS. THE PHASE I PROPOSAL AIMS TO DEMONSTRATE FEASIBILITY OF THE CONCEPT TO INCLUDE ACTUAL TESTS AT NSWC, ALBEIT ON A REDUCED CAPABILITY SENSOR. THEN, IF SUCCESSFUL, THE PHASE II PROGRAM WILL DEVELOP, BUILD, AND TEST A COMPLETE SENSOR HAVING A WIDE RANGE OF OPERATION. FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE NAVY WILL HAVE A MEANS FOR COMPLETELY CHARACTERIZING EACH FXR SHOT AS IT OCCURS WHICH WILL HELP MANY DIFFERENT USERS.