Fast and Dense Glass for High Energy Physics

Cost effective scintillators with high density and fast decay (< 10ns) are needed in large volumes to enhance and advance calorimetry in High Energy Physics experiments. These materials are also expected to be radiation hard up to 100 Mrad to withstand higher doses at future colliders. Inorganic scintillating glass that can be produced in large sizes and emit in wavelengths that can be detected with commercially available silicon photo multipliers can potentially meet these requirements. To address the needs for a fast and dense scintillator we propose to develop (La,Lu)2O3-(Ga,Al)2O3 glass system with expected density of 5.5 g/cm3. The glass will be doped with either Yb or Ce. The former dopant selection is based on our previous successful work on Yb doped Lu2O3 ceramics and offers fast charge transfer transition (<5ns decay). The latter, more common doping is expected to provide slightly slower but brighter scintillator. The wide band gaps of components will also allow for enhanced detection of ultra-fast Cherenkov photons (in case of Yb doping due to a larger Stokes shift). The proposed Phase I effort has two specific aims. First, we will develop a composition with density > 5.5 g/cc and ultra-fast decay time of < 5 ns based on Yb doped TeO2-GeO2-B2O3-La2O3-Lu2O3. TeO2 is expected to lower the cost (cheaper than GeO2 and requires lower processing temperatures) and increase the density. Second, we will develop a composition with light yield of up to 2,000 ph/MeV and decay times in the range of 100 ns to 1000 ns, while maintaining 6 g/cc density. This Ce doped composition will also be based on cheaper constituents. In addition to high energy physics applications, fast and dense materials would be attractive for high count rate applications such as nuclear fuel monitoring, dosimetry, energy resolved high energy radiography, or medical applications such as Positron-Emission-Tomography. The proposed material can deliver performance that surpasses the benchmark materials at potentially lower cost.