Properties of scintillator solutes

This special report summarizes measurements of the spectroscopic and other properties of the solutes that were used in the preparation of several new liquid scintillators developed at EG and G/Energy Measurements/Santa Barbara Operations (the precursor to Bechtel Nevada/Special Technologies Laboratory) on the radiation-to-light converter program. The data on the individual compounds are presented in a form similar to that used by Prof. Isadore Berlman in his classic handbook of fluorescence spectra. The temporal properties and relative efficiencies of the new scintillators are presented in Table 1, and the efficiencies as a function of wavelength are presented graphically in Figure 1. In addition, there is a descriptive glossary of the abbreviations used herein. Figure 2 illustrates the basic structures of some of the compounds and of the four solvents reported in this summary. The emission spectra generally exhibit more structure than the absorption spectra, with the result that the peak emission wavelength for a given compound may lie several nm away from the wavelength, {lambda}{sub avg}, at the geometric center of the emission spectrum. Therefore, the author has chosen to list absorption peaks, {lambda}{sub max}, and emission {lambda}{sub avg} values in Figures 3--30, as being most illustrative of the differences between the compounds. The compounds, BHTP, BTPB, ADBT, and DPTPB were all developed on this program. P-terphenyl, PBD, and TPB are commercially available blue emitters. C-480 and the other longer-wavelength emitters are laser dyes available commercially from Exciton Corporation. 1 ref., 30 figs