Large-grain scintillator screens for proton radiography

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Materials Science
• Engineering

Background:

• Proton radiography at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center has been utilized for dynamic experiments for 25 years.
• Current methods involve imaging proton pulses on scintillators, with light captured by fast gated cameras.
• Existing scintillator technology faces image quality limitations due to tiling and internally reflected light.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address image quality compromises in proton radiography.
• To develop improved scintillator screens for dynamic experiments.
• To overcome limitations associated with tiled scintillators and background light.

Main Methods:

• Development of large-grain scintillator screens.
• Utilization of a thin plastic binder in scintillator screen fabrication.
• Testing of new scintillator screens in pulsed radiography experiments.

Main Results:

• The new large-grain scintillator screens effectively solve image quality problems.
• Elimination of compromises caused by tiling and totally internally reflected light.
• Demonstrated improvement in image quality for dynamic experiments.

Conclusions:

• Large-grain scintillator screens offer a superior solution for pulsed radiography.
• The use of a thin plastic binder is key to resolving previous image quality issues.
• This advancement enhances the utility of proton radiography in dynamic experiments.