Submission Type
Poster
Abstract
A plastic scintillator detector was developed for an experiment carried out at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) at the University of Rochester. Scintillators can be used as detectors of energetic charged ions; for this experiment at LLE, scintillators were used to detect protons and deuterons accelerated by laser light during the experiment. However, uncoated scintillators are sensitive to visible light as well as charged particles, and the residual laser light interferes with the measurement of the ions. The Thin Film Evaporator at SUNY Geneseo was used to coat the scintillators with a metal film thick enough to absorb the visible light and thin enough so that the energy loss of the ions was minimized. The optimal film thickness was found to be 200 nm of Aluminum; this thickness was found to block out external visible light without significantly degrading the energy of the charged ions. Samples were mounted above an aluminum source in the bell jar and a base pressure of 10-6Torr was achieved. By passing a high current through the source holder, a thin film of aluminum was deposited while the thickness of the deposition was monitored using a rate deposition monitor. For some scintillator samples, multiple depositions were required to coat all sides of the scintillator. The coated scintillation detectors performed as expected for the LLE experiments.
Recommended Citation
Tabei, Mitsuki and Ehret, Zach, "014-Thin Film Deposition for Scintillator Detectors" (2024). GREAT Day Posters. 5.
https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/great-day-symposium/great-day-2024/posters-2024/5
014-Thin Film Deposition for Scintillator Detectors
A plastic scintillator detector was developed for an experiment carried out at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) at the University of Rochester. Scintillators can be used as detectors of energetic charged ions; for this experiment at LLE, scintillators were used to detect protons and deuterons accelerated by laser light during the experiment. However, uncoated scintillators are sensitive to visible light as well as charged particles, and the residual laser light interferes with the measurement of the ions. The Thin Film Evaporator at SUNY Geneseo was used to coat the scintillators with a metal film thick enough to absorb the visible light and thin enough so that the energy loss of the ions was minimized. The optimal film thickness was found to be 200 nm of Aluminum; this thickness was found to block out external visible light without significantly degrading the energy of the charged ions. Samples were mounted above an aluminum source in the bell jar and a base pressure of 10-6Torr was achieved. By passing a high current through the source holder, a thin film of aluminum was deposited while the thickness of the deposition was monitored using a rate deposition monitor. For some scintillator samples, multiple depositions were required to coat all sides of the scintillator. The coated scintillation detectors performed as expected for the LLE experiments.