Characterization of novel scintillators for neutrino physics*

In recent years, novel liquid scintillators have been developed allowing the separation of Cherenkov and scintillation light. They hold the potential for a major breakthrough in neutrino detection technology, allowing development of large, low-threshold, directional detectors suited for the study of neutrino properties and astrophysical observations.

We perform two characterization experiments for these novel liquid scintillation media exploiting the CN proton beam at LNL, Italy. We investigate the energy-dependent quenching effect and the fluorescence time spectra utilizing gammas and neutrons produced in collisions of the proton beam with a lithium target at a few MeV beam energy. In addition, we also perform high precision measurements of these properties for classical organic scintillators. Our results will allow a refined understanding and modelling of scintillator properties and constitute valuable input for the design of future large scale detectors.