Time and Energy Resolution of Organic Glass Scintillators for Radionuclide Monitoring

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996 seeks to prohibit nuclear explosions around the world and utilizes the International Monitoring System (IMS) for treaty verification. One detection mode in the IMS involves radionuclide monitoring of radioxenon isotopes that are emitted into the atmosphere during a nuclear test. Current monitoring systems use organic and inorganic scintillators to detect the coincident beta-gamma emission characteristic of several radioxenon isotopes. Chemists at Sandia National Laboratories have recently developed an organic glass scintillating material that exhibits pulse shape discrimination capabilities and higher light output than other leading scintillation materials, making it a viable choice for replacing plastic organic scintillators currently used in radioxenon monitoring systems. To investigate the organic glass performance for this application, characterization and optimization of the material are necessary. In this work, we present the energy resolution obtained using 6 mm cubic shapes. We compare and discuss the time resolution of OGS 6 mm cubes with results obtained from stilbene 50.8 mm cylinders, highlighting the challenges and plans to use higher resolution digitizers in future work.