Production and validation of scintillating structural components from low-background Poly(ethylene naphthalate). (5th January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Efremenko, Y.; Febbraro, M.; Fischer, F.; Guitart Corominas, M.; Gusev, K.; Hackett, B.; Hayward, C.; Hodák, R.; Krause, P.; Majorovits, B.; Manzanillas, L.; Muenstermann, D.; Pohl, M.; Rouhana, R.; Radford, D.; Rukhadze, E.; Rumyantseva, N.; Schilling, I.; Schoenert, S.; Schulz, O.; Schwarz, M.; Štekl, I.; Stommel, M.; Weingarten, J.
• Is Part Of: Journal of instrumentation. Volume 17:Number 1(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-01-05
• Subjects: Scintillators and scintillating fibres and light guides -- Scintillators, scintillation and light emission processes (solid, gas and liquid scintillators) -- Double-beta decay detectors -- Gamma detectors (scintillators, CZT, HPGe, HgI etc); Scientific apparatus and instruments -- Periodicals; 502.84
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/17/01/P01010
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1748-0221

Abstract

Abstract: Poly Ethylene Naphthalate (PEN) is an industrial polymer plastic which is investigated as a low background, transparent, scintillating and wavelength shifting structural material. PEN scintillates in the blue region and has excellent mechanical properties both at room and cryogenic temperatures. Thus, it is an ideal candidate for active structural components in experiments for the search of rare events like neutrinoless double-beta decay or dark matter recoils. Such optically active structures improve the identification and rejection efficiency of backgrounds events, like this improving the sensitivity of experiments. This paper reports on the production of radiopure and transparent PEN plates These structures can be used to mount germanium detectors operating in cryogenic liquids (LAr, LN). Thus, as first application PEN holders will be used to mount the Ge detectors in the Legend -200 experiment. The whole process from cleaning the raw material to testing the PEN active components under final operational conditions is reported.