Webcast Link

New Scintillators and their Integration into Detector Systems

Speaker

Nerine Cherepy

Research Scientist

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Abstract

Scintillators for detection, spectroscopy and imaging are being developed by LLNL and with our partners that offer performance improvements over existing commercial scintillators. For gamma spectroscopy these include Europium-doped Strontium Iodide, SrI2(Eu), transparent ceramic Cerium-doped Gadolinium Garnet, GYGAG(Ce), Cesium Hafnium Chloride, Cs2HfCl6, and Bismuth-loaded plastics. Central to our development effort is the Scintillation Light Yield Characterization Instrument (SLYNCI) that has provided guidance and allowed downselection among candidate scintillators for our own work, and serving as a resource for the scintillator community and helping to elucidate scintillation mechanisms in many materials. We have engineered prototype handheld gamma spectrometers employing new scintillators that offer advantages over standard detectors: (1) the Mobile Radioisotope Identification Detector (Mr. ID) – a 1.5 x1.5 SrI2(Eu)-based detector, and (2) the Directional Radioisotope Identification Detector (Dr. ID) – a pixelated GYGAG(Ce)-based detector. For MeV X-ray imaging, GLO transparent ceramics have been scaled to 12 sizes and allow 5x faster image acquisition than the standard glass scintillators, while for MeV neutron imaging, new plastic imaging screens offering 3x brighter emission than standard plastic are being fabricated.

Information

All students and faculty are invited to attend. UTNE Graduate Students who hold Assistantships or Fellowships are required to attend in person.

Refreshments will be provided in 200 ESA  immediately following the colloquium.