Optical properties of low background PEN structural components for the LEGEND-200 experiment

Abstract

Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN) plastic scintillator has been identified as potential self-vetoing structural material in low-background physics experiments. Scintillating components have been produced radio-pure from PEN using injection compression molding technology. These low-background PEN components will be used as active holders to mount the Germanium detectors in the \legend-$200$ neutrinoless double beta decay experiment. In this paper we present the measurement of the optical properties of these PEN components. Thus, the emission spectrum, time constant, attenuation and bulk absorption length as well as light output and light yield are reported. In addition, the surface of these PEN components has been characterized and an estimation of the surface roughness is presented. Moreover, the light output of the final \legend-$200$ detector holders has been measured and is reported. These measurements were used to estimate the self-vetoing efficiency of these holders.

References in corpus (14)

• The scintillation of liquid argon
• Upgrade for Phase II of the GERDA Experiment
• Wavelength shifters for applications in liquid argon detectors
• Qualification Tests of 474 Photomultiplier Tubes for the Inner Detector of the Double Chooz Experiment
• Polyethylene naphthalate film as a wavelength shifter in liquid argon detectors
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• Wavelength-Shifting Performance of Polyethylene Naphthalate Films in a Liquid Argon Environment
• Modeling of GERDA Phase II data
• R&D of Wavelength-Shifting Reflectors and Characterization of the Quantum Efficiency of Tetraphenyl Butadiene and Polyethylene Naphthalate in Liquid Argon
• Production and validation of scintillating structural components from low-background Poly(ethylene naphthalate)
• Characterization of photomultiplier tubes with a realistic model through GPU-boosted simulation
• Light Response of Poly(ethylene 2,6-napthalate) to Neutrons

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Production and validation of scintillating structural components from low-background Poly(ethylene naphthalate)
• Development of a method to measure trace level of uranium and thorium in scintillation films
• Mitigation Strategies for ${}^{42}$Ar/${}^{42}$K Background Reduction using Encapsulation with Ultra-Pure Plastic for the LEGEND Experiment
• PoWER: a new concept for DUNE Phase 2 FD PDS