What is Scintillator: Definition and 24 Discussions

A scintillator is a material that exhibits scintillation, the property of luminescence, when excited by ionizing radiation. Luminescent materials, when struck by an incoming particle, absorb its energy and scintillate (i.e. re-emit the absorbed energy in the form of light). Sometimes, the excited state is metastable, so the relaxation back down from the excited state to lower states is delayed (necessitating anywhere from a few nanoseconds to hours depending on the material). The process then corresponds to one of two phenomena: delayed fluorescence or phosphorescence. The correspondence depends on the type of transition and hence the wavelength of the emitted optical photon.

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  1. J

    I GM tube and dual probe scintillator

    Recently I measured a range of sources with two detectors comparing their efficiency. One of the sources used (C-14) was a pure beta emitter and it made me wonder. If a radioactive source decays by beta then gamma, will one decay register as two counts as two radioactive particles are produced...
  2. Sciencemaster

    I Incorrect units when calculating cosmic ray muon flux

    I recently performed an experiment that involved using a cylindrical scintillator to detect cosmic ray muons by observing the amount of particles that decayed within 20 microseconds over a long period of time. I'd like to use this to find the flux of muons at my scintillator so that I can...
  3. T

    I Two stage amplifier for a plastic scintillator

    When detecting a muon, we can use a plastic scintillator which consists of the components in the diagram attached. I am trying to understand what exactly the "two-stage amplifier" does which is located in the top left corner in the image attached? I am unable to find any information on it online...
  4. C

    I How to calibrate a NaI(Tl) scintillator?

    Hello! I've got an gamma/x-ray NaI(Tl) Scintillator. It has a positive going signal design (Hamamatsu photomultiplier tube plus preamplifier). I want to acquire its raw signal by a 250 MHZ digital oscilloscope and to process the signal myself using scientific programming. What are the options...
  5. R

    A Re-exciting organic scintillator

    I've attached an image from the book "nuclear physics" by John Lilley. It says "in only one case is the restulting photon energy sufficient to cause re-excitation". My question is what is this one case? I recall my lecturer saying only decay to S01 is sufficient to cause re-excitation, but I...
  6. G

    I Where are the Beta Particles in a Muon Detector?

    This may be a pretty basic question ,but i'll through it out any way. As a project i built a muon detector from 2 matched PMTs and 2 4x6x1 plastic PVT scintillators. And pulse processing NIM modules. I was getting pretty good coincidence reading,some what less than predicted.ie ( 1...
  7. S

    I Count Rate of a Detector in Scintillator

    Hello! How is the count rate of a detector defined (I need for a scintillator)? It is just the number of particle hitting the detector per second times the efficiency of the detector at that energy?
  8. Mrinmoy Naskar

    A Plastic Scintillator: Benefits in Beta Decay Experiments

    . why plastic scintillator is more useful than other scintillator in beta decay experiment??
  9. I

    Energy Loss in Plastic Scintillator

    Homework Statement Calculate the energy loss loss ##\Delta T## for protons, deuterons and ##\alpha##-particles between ##10## to ##200##MeV when they're passing through a 2mm thick plastic scintillator. Suppose ##Z/A=0.56##, ##I=65eV## and ##\rho = 1.10##g/cm^3. Homework Equations Bethe...
  10. H

    I Where to find phosphorescent screens?

    Hello everyone, I have been playing around with Americium-241 from a smoke detector, and I was wondering where I could find a phosphorescent screen that would scintillate when hit with an alpha particle. Also, I was wondering what the different types of phosphor screens commonly used are and...
  11. P

    A Formula for calculating neutron flux?

    I have a liquid scintillator, the electronics system, and a beam of neutrons from a reactor. How do I calculate the neutron flux? Cold anybody give me a formula or equation? Not this equation: phi = n X v, where phi - flux, n = number of neutrons per cm3, v = velocity of the neutrons, because I...
  12. P

    A Liquid Scintillation Counter using U-238 to detect neutrons

    I'm trying to make a LSC with U-238 (non-aqueous form) dipped in the scintillating cocktail to detect fast neutrons (no thermals or epithermals, only fast) from a Cf-252 source. How do I calculate the wavelength emerging from the cocktail (assuming U-238 does not react with the cocktail)? Also...
  13. BUI TUAN KHAI

    Optical Properties of scintillator detector

    Dear all, I would like to study more about the optical properties of scintillator detector in nuclear physics experiment. Is there any good reference for this? If the reference is discussed deeply in solid-state-physics, that is really nice. Actually, I am attending a "optical properties of...
  14. ryanuser

    Scintillator to generate electricity?

    Hi, I am doing a high school project based on physics and I wondered if my idea works or not. So I was thinking to use gamma rays as a source of energy to produce enough current to charge my phone. My question is that would it be possible to use scintillators (used in photomultipliers in...
  15. C

    Relationship between radiation flux and count rate of a scintillator

    If the radiation flux is calculated as: F = \frac{L}{2*pi*r^{2}} where L is the luminosity of the source and r is the distance from the source and the count rate of a scintillator \frac{number-of-scintillations}{time} What is the relationship between them? There obviously should be one, as...
  16. S

    Muon Detection & Decay Time: Scintillator Explained

    Hi everybody, I am trying to set up a lab experiment on muon detection and determination of its decay time. I know that when a muon first reaches the scintillator it slows down because of ionization and atomic excitation of solvent molecules. The deposited energy is transferred to the fluor...
  17. C

    How Gamma Rays & Scintillators Work: Questions Answered

    I'm doing a lab using a scintillator/PMT to perform gamma ray spectroscopy, I'm a little bit unsure on how the scintillator works- When a scintillator atom is impacted by a gamma ray, it emits a photon (or a number of photons?). Does the photon emitted have a energy related to the energy of the...
  18. H

    Photomultiplier Scintillator Cosmic Ray level monitoring

    I'm currently in the process of building a new muon detector using PMTs and Scintillators http://www.hardhack.org.au/scintillator_detector for testing the validity of my other cheaper detector projects. But I was also thinking of building another detector for logging average Cosmic Ray levels...
  19. P

    Gamma spectroscopy (Scintillator)

    I know that theorically the numbers of counts between compton edge and the photopeak must be zero. In practice it doens't occur. Why? Thanks in advance!
  20. M

    Use of Scintillator for Gamma Rays

    Hi all, i want to ask use of scintillator. Actually what i studied that to convert highly energetic gamma rays, to visible photon we use scintillator before p.m. tube, so that photoelectric effect can occur and we get photo-electrons. But when gamma rays interact with matter in three different...
  21. M

    NAI(Thallium doped) Scintillator Calibration?

    I'm currently taking intermediate Lab II (Physics 414) and we're currently working on Gamma Ray Spectroscopy. We are tasked with manually calibrating a NA-I Scintillator doped with Thallium in order to determine the isotope composition of an unknown source. My partner and I have been thinking...
  22. A

    Solid plastic scintillator, Pilot B

    Homework Statement Calculate the energy loss \DeltaT of protons, deuterons and \alpha's between 10 and 200 MeV in passing through a 2-mm thickness of solid plastic scintillator (the name of the plastic seems to be Pilot B). Homework Equations The stopping power equation, which is too long...
  23. R

    How Do You Calculate the Compton Edge Energy in Scintillator Experiments?

    I am trying to calculate the energy at which the Compton edge occurs for a sample of Cs137 using a NaI(Tl) scintillator. I know the original energy of the gamma ray was 661.6keV. and that for the Compton edge the angle between the electron and the line of incident must be 0degrees (for max...
  24. I

    Scintillator converts xray photons into visible photons

    I believe that a scintillator converts xray photons into visible photons through the process of exciting electrons, then allowing it to fall to ground state. My q is: shouldn't the energy of the photon released be the same as the photon energy that is used to excite the electron? Just on...
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