Ultracold neutron detection with 6Li-doped glass scintillators, NANOSC: a fast ultracold neutron detector for the nEDM experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results from measurements aiming to characterize ultracold neutron detection with 6Li-doped glass scintillators. Single GS10 or GS20 scintillators, with a thickness of 100-200 micrometer, fulfill the ultracold neutron detection requirements with an acceptable neutron-gamma discrimination. This discrimination is clearly improved with a stack of two scintillators: a 6Li-depleted glass bonded to a 6Li-enriched glass. The optical contact bonding is used between the scintillators in order to obtain a perfect optical contact. The scintillator's detection efficiency is similar to that of a 3He Strelkov gas detector. Coupled to a digital data acquisition system, counting rates up to a few 10^5 counts/s can be handled. A detector based on such a scintillator stack arrangement was built and has been used in the neutron electric dipole moment experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute since 2010. Its response for the regular runs of the neutron electric dipole moment experiment is presented.

arXiv comment14 pages, 12 figures, regular article submitted for publication

References in corpus (5)

• Demonstration of a solid deuterium source of ultra-cold neutrons
• Apparatus for Measurement of the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron using a Cohabiting Atomic-Mercury Magnetometer
• Preparation of facilities for fundamental research with ultracold neutrons at PNPI
• Development of a Pixel Detector for Ultra-Cold Neutrons
• Determining the 6Li Doped Side of a Glass Scintillator for Ultra Cold Neutrons

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Measurement of the permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron
• Search for axion-like dark matter through nuclear spin precession in electric and magnetic fields
• A search for neutron to mirror-neutron oscillations
• First ultracold neutrons produced at TRIUMF
• Magnetic field uniformity in neutron electric dipole moment experiments
• The n2EDM experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute
• Demonstration of sensitivity increase in mercury free-spin-precession magnetometers due to laser-based readout for neutron electric dipole moment searches
• nEDM experiment at PSI: data-taking strategy and sensitivity of the dataset
• Characterization of a scintillating lithium glass ultra-cold neutron detector
• Statistical sensitivity of the nEDM apparatus at PSI to neutron mirror-neutron oscillations
• A search for neutron to mirror neutron oscillation using neutron electric dipole moment measurements
• Search for an interaction mediated by axion-like particles with ultracold neutrons at the PSI
• Data blinding for the nEDM experiment at PSI
• A novel technique of extracting UCN lifetimes from storage bottle measurements dominated by scattering losses