Optimization of light collection from crystal scintillators for cryogenic experiments

Abstract

High light collection efficiency is an important requirement in any application of scintillation detectors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility for improving this parameter in cryogenic scintillation bolometers, which can be considered as a promising detectors in experiments investigating neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter. Energy resolutions and relative pulse amplitudes of scintillation detectors using ZnWO4 scintillation crystals of different shapes (cylinder 20 mm in dimater by 20 mm and hexagonal prism with diagonal 20 mm and height 20 mm), reflector materials and shapes, optical contact and surface properties (polished and diffused) were measured at room temperature. Propagation of optical photons in these experimental conditions was simulated using Geant4 and ZEMAX codes. The results of the simulations are found to be in good agreement with each other and with direct measurements of the crystals. This could be applied to optimize the geometry of scintillation detectors used in the cryogenic experiments.

12 pages, 8 figures, 1 Table

References in corpus (7)

• Performance of scintillation materials at cryogenic temperatures
• Performances of a large mass ZnSe bolometer to search for rare events
• Characterization of ZnSe scintillating bolometers for Double Beta Decay
• Random coincidence of $2\nu 2\beta$ decay events as a background source in bolometric $0\nu 2\beta$ decay experiments
• Influence of Annealing on the Optical and Scintillation Properties of CaWO${}_4$ Single Crystals
• Application of the Monte-Carlo refractive index matching (MCRIM) technique to the determination of the absolute light yield of a calcium molybdate scintillator
• First test of a cryogenic scintillation module with a CaWO4 scintillator and a low-temperature photomultiplier down to 6 K

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Low background techniques in bolometers for double-beta decay search
• Particle Discrimination in TeO${}_2$ Bolometers using Light Detectors read out by Transition Edge Sensors
• Impact of geometry on light collection efficiency of scintillation detectors for cryogenic rare event searches
• Optical, luminescence, and scintillation properties of advanced ZnWO${}_4$ crystal scintillators
• Neganov-Luke amplified cryogenic light detectors for the background discrimination in neutrinoless double beta decay search with TeO${}_2$ bolometers
• Cryogenic phonon-scintillation detectors with PMT readout for rare event search experiments
• Proceedings of the third French-Ukrainian workshop on the instrumentation developments for HEP