Performance of Crystal Scintillators in a Severe Radiation Environment Caused by Protons

Future high energy physics experiments at the energy and intensity frontiers will face challenges from a severe radiation environment caused by both ionization dose and charged and neutral hadrons. This paper reports an investigation on proton induced radiation damage in various crystal scintillators. Large size BGO, LFS and PWO crystals of 18 to 22 cm long were irradiated by 800 MeV protons up to 3 × 10^(15) p/cm^2 at the WNR facility of LANSCE with longitudinal transmittance measured in situ. LYSO plates of 14 × 4 × 1.5 mm^3 were irradiated by 24 GeV protons up to 8.2 × 10^(15)p/cm^2 at the IRRAD facility of CERN. Degradations in both transmittance and light output are reported. The results show an excellent radiation hardness of LYSO/LFS crystals against charged hadrons