Temperature dependence of CaMoO(4) scintillation properties
The perspective of using CaMoO4 as a scintillation target in cryogenic rare event searches has provided strong motivation for the optimisation of this material. A single crystal of CaMoO4, exhibiting high optical quality, was produced and its scintillation light response to particle excitation and i...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
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2007
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| Summary: | The perspective of using CaMoO4 as a scintillation target in cryogenic rare event searches has provided strong motivation for the optimisation of this material. A single crystal of CaMoO4, exhibiting high optical quality, was produced and its scintillation light response to particle excitation and its decay time constant were investigated over the 7-300K temperature range. The scintillation at room temperature is strongly affected by thermal quenching. The main decay time constant is found to be 15.7 +/- 0.4 mu s at T= 300K; cooling to 7K increases the scintillation decay time constant to 380 +/- 20 mu s. The scintillation efficiency of the CaMoO4 crystal was evaluated by comparison with a reference CaWO4 crystal measured under the same conditions; we estimate the light output of CaMoO4 to be 55 +/- 20% that of CaWO4 at 294K and 95 +/- 30% at 7K. The study confirmed that calcium molybdate optimised for high light yield is a very attractive material for use in cryogenic phonon-scintillation detectors in rare event searches. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
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