Study of Timing Properties of

Scintillation and Straw tube Detectors

and application in Imaging

Aayushi Paul Supervisor:

University of Calcutta Dr. Saikat Biswas
Outline


Motivation

Scintillation and Straw tube detectors

Experimental details

Results

Applications

Discussions and Summary.
Motivation

●
To study the timing properties of Scintillators and
Straw tube detectors
●
Application of Scintillators in Imaging
Detectors
Detectors are devices used to detect a variety of charged, uncharged and high energy
quanta encountered in high energy physics experiments.
Interaction of matter with incident radiation is used to detect any radiation. The
primary interaction between charged particles and the electrons in the medium is
Coulombic interaction leading to ionization or excitations.

Types of Detectors:

Gaseous detectors

Scintillation Detectors

Semiconductor Detectors
Scintillation Detectors

Incident radiations induce excitation of atoms.

De-excitation lead to emission of visible
photons which in turn get absorbed by the
photocathode and thus get re-emitted as
electrons.
Main components:

Scintillating material

Light guide

Photo Multiplier tube
Scintillating material of polyvinyltoluene
(PVT) containing 65% anthracene has been
used
Perspex is used as a light guide.
Straw tube Detectors
Straw tube detectors are single wire gaseous
detectors.
Main Components:

Straw cathode

Anode wire
Incident radiations cause ionization of
gaseous atoms. Application of high voltage
between the electrodes leads to the
generation of a high electric field causing
the drift of the electrons and ions to the
respective electrodes and generation of
signals.
Gold plated Tungsten wire of 30 micron
diameter has been used as anode while
Kapton foil with an inner coating of 1000-
3000Å Al + 4µm carbon-loaded Kapton.
MEASUREMENT OF TIMING
PROPERTIES
Calibration of TAC
Experimental Setup Time window: 50ns

F
SCINTILLATOR I
DISCRIMINATOR
F
O VARIABLE
DELAY

START STOP

TIME TO AMPLITUDE
OSCILLOSCOPE
CONVERTER
(TAC)


HV of Scintillator
set at 1550V MULTI CHANNEL
ANALYSER

Discriminator (MCA) Time = 0.006 x (ch. no.) + 1.355
threshold set at
30mV
Measurement of time resolution of plastic scintillators

Dimensions of the used scintillators

SC1 : 20 cm× 20 cm S SC2

SC2 : 2 cm× 10 cm 11cm 11
SC3 : 10 cm× 10 cm
SC4 : 20 cm× 20 cm SC3

HV: 1550 Volt

Threshold: 30 mV 26cm
External Delay at the stop signal : 10 ns SC1
SC4
Time window : 50 ns
Spectra and Results

Start : SC2 and SC1 Start : SC2 and SC3

Stop : SC4 Stop : SC4
Start : SC3 and SC1 Start : SC3
Stop : SC4 Stop : SC4

Obtained time resolutions:

σ1= σ4 = 0.73 ± 0.02 ns
σ2 = 0.38 ± 0.02 ns
σ3 =0.56 ± 0.02 ns
Variation of time difference with PMT voltage
Experimental Setup

28s cm

Na22

(46
21cm– s) cm
Spectra Obtained
SC3 voltage set at 1550V SC3 voltage set at 1550V
SC4 voltage set at 1700V SC4 voltage set at 1700V
Time : 18961s Time : 8939s
Source used : Na22 Without Source
Results
No Source used
SC3 voltage set at 1550V

Arrival time vs Voltage Time resolution vs Voltage

Results
Studies with displacement of Source
A gamma emitting source, Na22 was placed POSITION OF SOURCE
between two scintillators which were kept at a (from the top):
fixed distance apart. Varying the position of the ●
28cm
source, the effect on the time difference ●
18cm
between the arrival of signals and the time ●
8cm
resolution were studied. ●
5cm
●
35cm
●
43.5cm
SCINTILLATORS USED :
●
SC3 (10cm x 10cm)
●
SC4 (20cm x 20cm) External delay added to SC4 : 15.42 ns

Distance between scintillators : 46cm Time window : 50ns

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

SC1 DISCRIMINATOR

SC3 DISCRIMINATOR
GATE
TAC

Na22
START

STOP
SC4 DISCRIMINATOR
Spectra Obtained
Threshold set at 15mV
Scintillators biased at 1550V

Na22 Source used Background Radiation

28cm from the top

and 18cm from the
bottom.
Contribution from the Gamma source
Variation of time difference with distance
The previous setup and the
following study uses the
basic idea of
t = ϲ/l
where t = time difference
c = velocity of light
l= distance from the top
scintillator.
Time Resolution of Straw tube Detectors using Plastic Scintillators

Experimental Setup Scintillators used :

●
SC2 (1cm x 10cm)
●
SC3 (10cm x 10cm)
Start : SC2 and Straw tube
Stop : SC3
Time Resolution of Straw tube :
6.99ns
SC2 and SC3 kept at 1550V
Straw tube kept at 1800V

Time window : 10 µs
Subsequent studies
SC2 and SC3 voltages set at 1550V

Arrival time vs Voltage Time resolution vs Voltage

Subsequent studies
Efficiency vs Voltage
Counts registered and the total
time of measurement was recorded
for each voltage.
Subsequently setting the Straw tube
voltage at an optimum value, 612
counts were registered in an hour
on an area of 0.6cm2. This has been
used as a normalization factor.
Conclusions and Summary
Acknowledgment