Nuclear security is one of the defining challenges of our time. Nuclear threats range from deliberate dispersal of radioactive material to contaminate the vital infrastructure to diversion and ...smuggling of special nuclear material for clandestine nuclear programs and nuclear terrorism, respectively. There is an associated need to develop and sustain nuclear forensics capabilities, which can be aided by good understanding of complex processes that occur in plasmas containing nuclear materials. The area of nuclear safety has seen a resurgence of public interest, and there is a concomitant need to safely store used nuclear fuel and to detect structural material failure in nuclear power systems, especially in innovative reactor designs envisioned for future adoption. Laser-produced plasmas are complicated extreme environments that can generate intense and rich, highly specific signatures of nuclear and radiological materials, which can then be explored for applications. They include interdiction and rapid detection of nuclear materials, including their isotopic composition, detection over long distances, laboratory simulation of weapons effects, monitoring the condition of structural materials in dry cask storage containers, and novel instrumentation for nuclear power systems. We present a compilation of recent representative examples of the application of laser spectroscopy, and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in particular, to nuclear safety and security problems. A case is made that spectroscopic techniques based on laser-produced plasmas offer complementary, and sometimes unique, capabilities that motivate continued exploration of their efficient production and broader understanding of the signatures they produce.
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•Spatiotemporal analysis of laser-induced plasma reveals the uranium plasma chemistry.•Ultrafast laser filamentation is effective for remote uranium elemental and isotope detection.•LIBS may be used for monitoring of fuel integrity in nuclear reactors.•LIBS is capable of detection of trace chlorine concentrations in dry cask storage systems.
A new technique developed for measuring nuclear reactions at low momentum transfer with stored beams in inverse kinematics was successfully used to study isoscalar giant resonances. The experiment ...was carried out at the experimental heavy-ion storage ring (ESR) at the GSI facility using a stored 58Ni beam at 100 MeV/u and an internal helium gas-jet target. In these measurements, inelastically scattered α-recoils at very forward center-of-mass angles (θcm≤1.5°) were detected with a dedicated setup, including ultra-high vacuum compatible detectors. Experimental results indicate a dominant contribution of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance at this very forward angular range. It was found that the monopole contribution exhausts 79−11+12% of the energy-weighted sum rule (EWSR), which agrees with measurements performed in normal kinematics. This opens up the opportunity to investigate the giant resonances in a large domain of unstable and exotic nuclei in the near future. It is a fundamental milestone towards new nuclear reaction studies with stored ion beams.
Properties of the CsI(Tl) detector elements of the CALIFA detector Knyazev, A.; Park, J.; Golubev, P. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
10/2019, Letnik:
940
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In the R3B experiment at FAIR, charged particles with energies up to 600 MeV and forward boosted γ-rays with energies up to 20 MeV need to be detected in scattering experiments. Calorimeters for ...nuclear physics experiments of this kind, using relativistic radioactive ion beams, require high energy resolution and high efficiency for simultaneous detection of strongly Doppler shifted γ-rays and high-energy charged particles. A calorimeter design that can meet these requirements, using CsI(Tl) scintillators, results in detector elements that may exhibit light output variations with crystal depth, which can limit the attainable resolution. In this paper we present results from a systematic study of 478 detector modules of CALIFA, the R3B calorimeter, in order to determine and minimize such variations. To facilitate further systematic studies we also present results for the total absorption length of the scintillation light, using spectrophotometry, light crosstalk between adjacent detector modules, and surface topography of the CsI(Tl) crystals from atomic force microscopy.
Simulation results for light transport in long tapered CsI(Tl) crystals using look-up tables (LUTs) are presented. The LUTs were derived from the topography of a polished and a lapped surface of a ...CsI(Tl) crystal measured with atomic force microscopy. Simulations with different combinations of polished and lapped surfaces were performed, to extract the non-uniformity of light collection depending on the interaction point, and compared to experimental results. The simulations reproduce the general trend given by the measurements, and show that more homogeneous light collection is attained when all lateral sides of the crystal are lapped. For the lapped crystal the simulation model is most sensitive to the reflectivity of the enhanced specular reflector (ESR) foil surrounding the crystal, which is one of several properties influencing the light transport examined in this study. The sensitivity of the light-output non-uniformity to variations in the absorption length observed in a batch of CsI(Tl) crystals in a previous study is also discussed. Residual differences between the simulation and the measurements can potentially be attributed to the scattering of scintillation photons inside the materials used. Additional measurements to further advance the construction of the simulation model are suggested.
Abstract
The matter radius of the doubly magic
$$^{56}$$
56
Ni was extracted from a measurement of the differential cross section by employing, for the first time, elastic proton scattering in ...inverse kinematics with a radioactive beam at
$$E_{kin}=390.2$$
E
kin
=
390.2
MeV/nucleon circulating in a storage ring and passing an internal hydrogen gas-jet target with a revolution frequency of around 2 MHz. The novel experimental scheme is based on UHV-compatible Si detectors operated as active vacuum windows, which were implemented in the ESR storage ring at GSI. A matter radius
$$<r_{m}^{2}>^{1/2}=3.74^{+0.03}_{-0.06}$$
<
r
m
2
>
1
/
2
=
3
.
74
-
0.06
+
0.03
fm was extracted for the doubly-magic self-conjugate nucleus
$$^{56}$$
56
Ni.
One of the factors that can contribute to the resolution of long, doped inorganic scintillators used for nuclear spectroscopy is the variation of the dopant concentration over the length the detector ...crystal. In this work an investigation of such potential variations in one of the CsI(Tl) scintillators used in the calorimeter, CALIFA, of the R3B experiment at FAIR, has been performed using particle induced X-ray emission. No statistically significant gradient in doping level was found along the long axis of the investigated sample crystal and the mean value of the Tl concentration was measured to be 0.0839(38)% by weight. This corresponds to a light output of 97.3−1.7+1.3% relative to the maximum attainable light output according to previously published work. By taking the ±1σ bounds, the 3% statistical spread in the relative light output provides a good reference value of the minimum light-output non-uniformity observed for the CALIFA crystals. If the relative light output is estimated pointwise from a set of Tl concentration measurements a light-output non-uniformity of 4.6(2.4)% results. For a γ-ray energy of 662 keV the deduced variation in Tl concentration contributes with 0.48(6)% to the typical resolution of 7.74(6)% measured with a collimated source along the crystal main axis. The result is of interest for the characterization of the detector system performance and for realistic simulations of the light collection process in detector systems that are used for nuclear spectroscopy and calorimetry.
CALIFA is the high efficiency and energy resolution calorimeter for the R3B experiment at FAIR, intended for detecting high energy light charged particles and gamma rays in scattering experiments, ...and is being commissioned during the Phase-0 experiments at FAIR, between 2018 and 2020. It surrounds the reaction target in a segmented configuration with 2432 detection units made of long CsI(Tl) finger-shaped scintillator crystals. CALIFA has a 10 year intended operational lifetime as the R3B calorimeter, necessitating measures to be taken to ensure enduring performance. In this paper we present a systematic study of two groups of 6 different detection units of the CALIFA detector after more than four years of operation. The energy resolution and light output yield are evaluated under different conditions. Tests cover the aging of the first detector units assembled and investigates recovery procedures for degraded detection units. A possible reason for the observed degradation is given, pointing to the crystal-APD coupling.
The accuracy of reaction theories used to extract properties of exotic nuclei from scattering experiments is often unknown or not quantified, but of utmost importance when, e.g., constraining the ...equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter from observables as the neutron-skin thickness. In order to test the Glauber multiple-scattering model, the total interaction cross section of ▪ on carbon targets was measured at initial beam energies of 400, 550, 650, 800, and 1000 MeV/nucleon. The measurements were performed during the first experiment of the newly constructed R3B (Reaction with Relativistic Radioactive Beams) experiment after the start of FAIR Phase-0 at the GSI/FAIR facility with beam energies of 400, 550, 650, 800, and 1000 MeV/nucleon. The combination of the large-acceptance dipole magnet GLAD and a newly designed and highly efficient Time-of-Flight detector enabled a precise transmission measurement with several target thicknesses for each initial beam energy with an experimental uncertainty of ±0.4%. A comparison with the Glauber model revealed a discrepancy of around 3.1% at higher beam energies, which will serve as a crucial baseline for the model-dependent uncertainty in future fragmentation experiments.
CALIFA is the high efficiency and energy resolution calorimeter for the R3B experiment at FAIR, intended for detecting high energy charged particles and γ-rays in inverse kinematics direct reactions. ...It surrounds the reaction target in a segmented configuration of Barrel and Forward End-Cap pieces. The CALIFA Barrel consists of 1952 detection units made of CsI(Tl) long-shaped scintillator crystals, and it is being commissioned during the Phase0 experiments at FAIR. The first setup for the CALIFA Barrel commissioning is presented here. Results of detector performance with γ-rays are obtained, and show that the system fulfills the design requirements.
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