Speaker
Dr
Pieter Mumm
(NIST)
Description
Organic scintillators with high light output, pulse shape discrimination (PSD) response and isotope doping are a promising avenue for achieving new levels of sensitivity to low-rate or low-energy processes. For example, 6Li-doped PSD scintillator enabled the PROSPECT experiment to achieve >104 background rejection in detecting MeV-scale reactor antineutrinos at the earth’s surface. When applied in a large underground detector, this technology can enable high-rate solar, atmospheric, and supernova neutrino measurements complementary to those delivered by an underground LArTPC like DUNE. When realized as a solid plastic, it can expand the range of granularity, geometry and portability achievable in hydrogen-rich neutrino targets. PROSPECT is the first modern neutrino experiment using large volumes of aqueous, PSD-capable, doped scintillator as its target/detection medium. As such, PROSPECT leads in advancing worldwide understanding the optical properties, stability, and production procedures for such materials. This talk will focus on describing the formulation, production, and performance of PROSPECT’s liquid scintillator and describe avenues for future R&D.
Primary author
Dr
Pieter Mumm
(NIST)
