SCINTILLATING OPTICAL FIBERS OF BAF2 FOR NUCLEAR PHYSICS INSTRUMENTATION

SCINTILLATION DETECTORS ARE NEEDED FOR THE DETECTION OF NUCLEAR RADIATION FOR NUCLEAR PHYSICS RESEARCH. THE MOST EFFICIENT SCINTILLATION MATERIALS HAVE BEEN THE INORGANIC CRYSTAL SCINTILLATORS. NAL (T1) HAS BEEN THE MOST WIDELY USED MATERIAL AND HAS LED TO MANY IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES AND APPLICATIONS. HOWEVER, THIS MATERIAL DOES HAVE SEVERAL DISADVANTAGES IN THAT IT IS HYGROSCOPIC, HAS A LONG RADIATION LENGTH AND HAS POOR MECHANICAL PROPERTIES BAF2 OVERCOMES MOST OF THE SHORTCOMINGS OF NAL (T1). RECENTLY, POLYMER SCINTILLATION FIBERS HAVE SHOWN THAT FIBERS CAN SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE THE SIZE OF SCINTILLATION DETECTOR SYSTEMS AND CAN ALSO RESULT IN MUCH GREATER SPATIAL RESOLUTION. WE ARE PROPOSING TO DEVELOP SINGLE CRYSTAL FIBERS OF BAF2 USING THE LASER-HEATED PEDESTAL-GROWTH TECHNIQUE THAT LASERGENICS CORPORATION HAS LICENSED FROM STANFORD UNIVERSITY. THESE FIBERS WILL HAVE MUCH GREATER EFFICIENCIES THAN THE POLYMER FIBERS THAT HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED AND WILL HAVE EVEN HIGHER RESOLUTION. THIS COULD LEAD TO MUCH SIMPLER AND CHEAPER DETECTION SYSTEMS FORNUCLEAR PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS.