Cherenkov and scintillation light separation in organic liquid scintillators

Abstract

Abstract The CHErenkov/Scintillation Separation experiment (CHESS) has been used to demonstrate the separation of Cherenkov and scintillation light in both linear alkylbenzene (LAB) and LAB with 2 g/L of PPO as a fluor (LAB/PPO). This is the first successful demonstration of Cherenkov light detection from the more challenging LAB/PPO cocktail and improves on previous results for LAB. A time resolution of $$338\pm 12$$ 338 ± 12 ps FWHM results in an efficiency for identifying Cherenkov photons in LAB/PPO of $$70 \pm 3 \%$$ 70 ± 3 % and $$63\pm 8\%$$ 63 ± 8 % for time- and charge-based separation, respectively, with scintillation contamination of $$36\pm 5\%$$ 36 ± 5 % and $$38\pm 4$$ 38 ± 4 %. LAB/PPO data is consistent with a rise time of $$\tau _r=0.72\pm 0.33$$ τ r = 0.72 ± 0.33 ns.