Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Proton irradiation of plastic scintillator bars for POLAR-2

Published inExperimental astronomy, vol. 56, no. 2-3, p. 355-370
Publication date2023-12
First online date2023-07-22
Abstract

POLAR-2, a plastic scintillator based Compton polarimeter, is currently under development and planned for a launch to the China Space Station in 2025. It is intended to shed a new light on our understanding of Gamma-Ray Bursts by performing high precision polarization measurements of their prompt emission. The instrument will be orbiting at an average altitude of 383 km with an inclination of 42° and will be subject to background radiation from cosmic rays and solar events. In this work, we tested the performance of plastic scintillation bars, EJ-200 and EJ-248M from Eljen Technology, under space-like conditions, that were chosen as possible candidates for POLAR-2. Both scintillator types were irradiated with 58 MeV protons at several doses from 1.89 Gy(corresponding to about 13 years in space for POLAR-2) up to 18.7 Gy, that goes far beyond the expected POLAR-2 life time. Their respective properties, expressed in terms of light yield, emission and absorption spectra, and activation analysis due to proton irradiation are discussed. Scintillators activation analyses showed a dominant contribution of β + decay with a typical for this process gamma-ray energy line of 511 keV.

Keywords
  • Cosmic rays
  • POLAR-2
  • Plastic scintillator
  • Protons
  • Radiation
Research groups
Citation (ISO format)
MIANOWSKI, Slawomir et al. Proton irradiation of plastic scintillator bars for POLAR-2. In: Experimental astronomy, 2023, vol. 56, n° 2-3, p. 355–370. doi: 10.1007/s10686-023-09906-8
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Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Additional URL for this publicationhttps://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10686-023-09906-8
Journal ISSN0922-6435
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