Shunsuke Kurosawa

Temperature Dependence of Scintillation Properties of Bright Oxide Scintillators for Well-Logging

Scintillation characteristics such as the pulse height, energy resolution, and decay time of single crystals of Tl-doped NaI (Tl:NaI), Ce-doped Lu2SiO5 (Ce:LSO), Ce-doped YAlO3 (Ce:YAP), Ce-doped Gd3(Al,Ga)5O12 (Ce:GAGG), Pr-doped Lu3Al5O12 (Pr:LuAG), undoped LuAG, and Ce-doped Y3Al5O12 (Ce:YAG) transparent ceramics were compared at 25–150 °C to simulate well logging conditions. For increasing temperature, the light output of the scintillators decreased, mostly because of thermal quenching. Among these samples, Pr:LuAG demonstrated the highest scintillation performance at 150 °C.

First underground results with NEWAGE-0.3a direction-sensitive dark matter detector

Abstract A direction-sensitive dark matter search experiment at Kamioka underground laboratory with the NEWAGE-0.3a detector was performed. The NEWAGE-0.3a detector is a gaseous micro-time-projection chamber filled with CF4 gas at 152 Torr. The fiducial volume and target mass are 20 × 25 × 31 cm 3 and 0.0115 kg, respectively. With an exposure of 0.524 kg days, improved spin-dependent weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP)-proton cross section limits by a direction-sensitive method were achieved including a new record of 5400 pb for 150 GeV / c 2 WIMPs. We studied the remaining background and found that ambient γ-rays contributed about one-fifth of the remaining background and radioactive contaminants inside the gas chamber contributed the rest.

Scintillation Properties of Transparent Ceramic Pr:LuAG for Different Pr Concentration

We manufactured transparent optical ceramic of Pr 0.2-1% doped Lu3Al5 O12 (Pr:LuAG) by the sintering method. We compare its optical and scintillation properties with the single crystal counterpart grown by the conventional Czochralski method. So far the scintillation ceramic of Pr:LuAG appeared inferior to its single crystal analog especially in terms of light yield. However, in the present case our ceramic Pr 0.25%-doped sample exhibited by 20% higher light yield compared to single crystal under γ-ray excitation. Furthermore, in the ceramic sample the slower scintillation decay components were suppressed and the defect related host emission as well. The optimized technology of optical ceramics thus appears very competitive to single crystals and opens great practical prospectives for the former materials in the field of fast scintillators.

Observation of Diffuse Cosmic and Atmospheric Gamma Rays at Balloon Altitudes with an Electron-tracking Compton Camera

We observed diffuse cosmic and atmospheric gamma rays at balloon altitudes with the Sub-MeV gamma-ray Imaging Loaded-on-balloon Experiment I (SMILE-I) as the first step toward a future all-sky survey with a high sensitivity. SMILE-I employed an electron-tracking Compton camera comprised of a gaseous electron tracker as a Compton-scattering target and a scintillation camera as an absorber. The balloon carrying the SMILE-I detector was launched from the Sanriku Balloon Center of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on 2006 September 1, and the flight lasted for 6.8 hr, including level flight for 4.1 hr at an altitude of 32-35 km. During the level flight, we successfully detected 420 downward gamma rays between 100 keV and 1 MeV at zenith angles below 60°. To obtain the flux of diffuse cosmic gamma rays, we first simulated their scattering in the atmosphere using Geant4, and for gamma rays detected at an atmospheric depth of 7.0 g cm–2 we found that 50% and 21% of the gamma rays at energies of 150 keV and 1 MeV, respectively, were scattered in the atmosphere prior to reaching the detector. Moreover, by using Geant4 simulations and the QinetiQ atmospheric radiation model, we estimated that the detected events consisted of diffuse cosmic and atmospheric gamma rays (79%), secondary photons produced in the instrument through the interaction between cosmic rays and materials surrounding the detector (19%), and other particles (2%). The obtained growth curve was comparable to Lings model, and the fluxes of diffuse cosmic and atmospheric gamma rays were consistent with the results of previous experiments. The expected detection sensitivity of a future SMILE experiment measuring gamma rays between 150 keV and 20 MeV was estimated from our SMILE-I results and was found to be 10 times better than that of other experiments at around 1 MeV.

Direction-sensitive dark matter search results in a surface laboratory

Abstract We developed a three-dimensional gaseous tracking device and performed a direction-sensitive dark matter search in a surface laboratory. By using 150 Torr carbon-tetrafluoride (CF 4 ) gas, we obtained a sky map drawn with the recoil directions of the carbon and fluorine nuclei, and set the first limit on the spin-dependent WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles)-proton cross section by a direction-sensitive method. Thus, we showed that a WIMP-search experiment with a gaseous tracking device can actually set limits. Furthermore, we demonstrated that this method will potentially play a certain role in revealing the nature of dark matter when a low-background large-volume detector is developed.

Fast and High-Energy-Resolution Oxide Scintillator: Ce-Doped (La,Gd)2Si2O7

A novel scintillation crystal (Ce0.01,Gd0.90,La0.09)2Si2O7 (Ce:La-GPS) was grown by the floating zone method, and its optical and scintillation properties were investigated. The emission wavelength of this material was 390 nm. Gamma ray excited pulse height and scintillation decay measurement showed that Ce:La-GPS had a high energy resolution (FWHM) of 5% at 662 keV, high light output of 36,000 photons/MeV and fast scintillation decay time of 46 ns.

Ultrafast Transparent Ceramic Scintillators Using the Yb3+ Charge Transfer Luminescence in RE2O3 Host

We report a new discovery of Yb3+-doped ultrafast scintillators based on the Yb3+ charge transfer luminescence. Transparent ceramic Yb3+-doped Y2O3, Sc2O3, Lu2O3, and Yb2O3 were prepared by sintering. When irradiated by γ- and X-rays, they showed a well detectable photoabsorption peak in the pulse height spectra and ultrafast scintillation decay dominated by the decay time of about 1 ns. For the first time, the Yb3+-doped oxide materials show detectable scintillation in the pulse height measurement at room temperature with ultrafast scintillation decay.

A prototype of aerial radiation monitoring system using an unmanned helicopter mounting a GAGG scintillator Compton camera

Due to the accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, some areas were contaminated by released radioisotopes (mainly 137Cs and 134Cs). Effective decontamination is demanded to encourage evacuated people to return. This paper proposes a new survey system using an unmanned helicopter equipped with a Compton camera for localizing radionuclides. As a prototype, 32 Ce:Gd3(Al,Ga)5O12 (GAGG) crystals were coupled to 16 silicon photomultipliers and 16 avalanched photodiodes as the scatterer and absorber, respectively. A new Dynamic Time-over-Threshold (dToT) method was applied to convert CR-RC shaping signals to digital signals for multi-channel spectra and coincidence acquisition. The system was designed to work in two modes: one is Compton-camera mode (CCM) which obtains the radiation distribution maps through Compton imaging using hovering flights, while the other one is Gamma-camera mode (GCM) which maps the radiation distribution via measured coincidence events using programmed flights. For point source in CCM, an intrinsic efficiency of 1.68% with a combined standard uncertainty of 0.04% and an angular resolution of about 14° (FWHM, full width at half maximum) was achieved. In GCM, a spatial resolution of about 11 cm (FWHM) was obtained when detecting area is 11.2 cm away from the detector, while it was about 28 cm (FWHM) in single detector mode (SDM). Promising results were obtained in field in Fukushima.

Large Size Czochralski Growth and Scintillation Properties of

The 3 inch size Mg co-doped Ce : Gd₃Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ single crystals were prepared by the Czochralski (Cz) method. Absorption and luminescence spectra were measured together with several other scintillation characteristics, namely the scintillation decay and light yield to reveal the effect of Mg co-doping. The timing resolution measurement for a pair of 3 × 3 × 3 mm³ size GAGG:Ce.Mg scintillator crystals was performed using Si-PMs.

\text{Mg}^{2+}

Photon imaging for MeV gammas has serious difficulties due to huge backgrounds and unclearness in images, which are originated from incompleteness in determining the physical parameters of Compton scattering in detection, e.g., lack of the directional information of the recoil electrons. The recent major mission/instrument in the MeV band, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory/COMPTEL, which was Compton Camera (CC), detected mere