A Phoswich Detector System to Measure Sub-Second Half-Lives using ICF Reactions

Thumbnail Image
Date
2017-10-23
Authors
Coats, Micah
Cook, Katelyn
Yuly, Mark
Padalino, Stephen
Sangster, Craig
Regan, Sean
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Houghton College
Abstract
The 3H(t,γ)6He cross section has not been measured at any bombarding energy due to the difficulties of simultaneously producing both a tritium beam and target at accelerator labs. An alternative technique may be to use an ICF tt implosion at the OMEGA Laser Facility. The 3H(t,γ)6He cross section could be determined in situ by measuring the beta decay of 6He beginning a few milliseconds after the shot along with other ICF diagnostics. A dE-E phoswich system capable of surviving in the OMEGA target chamber was tested using the SUNY Geneseo pelletron to create neutrons via 2H(d,n)3He and subsequently 6He via 9Be(n,α)6He in a beryllium target. The phoswich dE-E detector system was used to select beta decay events and measure the 807 ms halflife of 6He. It is composed of a thin, 2 ns decay time dE scintillator optically coupled to a thick, 285 ns E scintillator, with a linear gate to separate the short dE pulse from the longer E tail. Funded in part by a grant from the DOE through the Laboratory for Laser Energetics.
Description
Event
Omega Laser User’s Group Meeting, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Rochester, NY, April 25, 2018; XXXVII Annual Rochester Symposium for Physics Students, SUNY Brockport, Brockport, NY., April 7, 2018; 59th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Milwaukee, WI, Oct. 23-27, 2017; 2017 APS Division of Plasma Physics Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Award; 2018 Omega Laser Facility Users Group Workshop Student Poster Award.
Keywords
Student Projects
Citation
Collections
Rights
Authors retain the copyright for all content posted in this repository. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed beyond the Houghton College community without permission except in accordance with fair use doctrine.