RESPONSE FUNCTION STUDY FOR ENERGY TO LIGHT CONVERSION IN ORGANIC LIQUID SCINTILLATORS

Year
2011
Author(s)
S. Prasad - Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences
S. D. Clarke - Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan
A. Enqvist - Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan
S. A. Pozzi - Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan
Abstract
In this paper light response functions for the EJ309 liquid scintillator are developed and analyzed. Simulation results are obtained using new response functions and compared to experimental data to verify their accuracy. It is found that light response functions with a quadratic fit have negative intercepts and therefore give rise to negative light components in pulses. Although not physical, it is shown that these negative components in fact help improve the agreement between simulations and measurements. Thus, one may glean that the present values of energy deposited and light produced are over-predicting detector response which needs to be offset by the negative light components, this is especially true for low energies. To investigate this, sensitivity analysis and validation of assumptions are also performed.