High Performance Scintillator and Beam Monitoring System

C47-31d-271361Nuclear physics has a need for new enabling materials and technologies for next-generation detectors at DOE particle accelerator research facilities. Improvements are needed in high-performance scintillator materials for detecting and counting charged particles in real-time over a wide range of energies and beam intensities. Integrated Sensors, LLC has demonstrated two new types of high-performance scintillator materials as key components in a novel beam monitoring system designed to provide major advantages over current technology. The patented beam monitoring system has been designed to take advantage of both materials and can provide continuous real-time high-speed readout of beam position, shape, intensity, with high spatial resolution and single-particle sensitivity/position capability. The Phase-II program succeeded in demonstrating exceptional particle sensitivity/performance in terms of operation and imaging over an extremely wide intensity range from single-particles imaging to approximately 1011 particles per second. This level of performance and beam imaging inside a particle beamline greatly exceeded the programs initial goals/objectives and was demonstrated in real-time with ultra-high spatial resolution at the DOE Facility for Rare Isotope Beams located at Michigan State University. The new materials also demonstrated exceptional radiation damage resistance and can be made ultrathin and essentially transparent to the fast particle beams. The Integrated Sensors beam monitoring system offers a breath of capability not available in any other beam monitor system and could achieve an unprecedent payback time of just several months per unit due to the very significant savings in beam tuning time. The Phase-IIB program is planned for just one-year and will transition from R&D to development of a flexible modular product platform that can be easily customized for different applications in a wide variety of particle beam environments. The system will also be very cost competitive and will also be able to self-calibrate with minimal maintenance required. The commercial applications for the proposed technology are scientific, industrial and medical. The scientific applications are primarily directed at nuclear physics, but can also be important for high energy physics, etc. For industrial applications there are more than ten thousand small accelerators and many could benefit by the proposed technology. However, the greatest benefit could be in the medical field for the treatment of cancer by external beam radiation therapy, including the newest treatment being explored of FLASH radiotherapy. The proposed technology should improve the efficacy of cancer treatment and while advancing nuclear physics research by providing better and faster beam monitoring, better beam control and even reduced cost.