Separation of Scintillation and Cherenkov Lights in Linear Alkyl Benzene

Abstract

To separate scintillation and Cherenkov lights in water-based liquid scintillator detectors is a desired feature for future neutrino and proton decay researches. Linear alkyl benzene (LAB) is one important ingredient of a water-based liquid scintillator being developed. In this paper we observed a good separation of scintillation and Cherenkov lights in an LAB sample. The rising and decay times of the scintillation light of the LAB were measured to be $(7.7\pm 3.0)\mathrm{ns}$ and $(36.6\pm 2.4)\mathrm{ns}$, respectively, while the full width [-3$\ddot{I}ƒ$, 3$\ddot{I}ƒ$] of the Cherenkov light was 12 ns dominated by the time resolution of our photomultiplier tubes. The light yield of the scintillation was measured to be $(1.01\pm 0.12)\times 10^3\mathrm{photons}/\mathrm{MeV}$.

6 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables