Inorganic crystal scintillators play a crucial role in particle detection for various applications in fundamental physics and applied science. The use of such materials as scintillating bolometers, which operate at temperatures as low as 10 mK and detect both heat (phonon) and scintillation signals, significantly extends detectors performance compared to the conventional scintillation counters. In particular, such low-temperature devices offer a high energy resolution in a wide energy interval thanks to a phonon signal detection, while a simultaneous registration of scintillation emitted provides an efficient particle identification tool. This feature is of great importance for a background identification and rejection. Combined with a large variety of elements of interest, which can be embedded in crystal scintillators, scintillating bolometers represent powerful particle detectors for rare-event searches (e.g., rare alpha and beta decays, double-beta decay, dark matter particles, neutrino detection). Here, we review the features and results of low-temperature scintillation detection achieved over a 30-year history of developments of scintillating bolometers and their use in rare-event search experiments.

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Scintillation in Low-Temperature Particle Detectors

Preparation and Characterization of Portland Cement Pastes with Sm₂O₃ Microparticle Additions for Neutron Shielding Applications

Gadolinium (Gd)-containing chelates have been established as diagnostics tools. However, extensive use in magnetic resonance imaging has led to increased Gd levels in industrialized parts of the world, adding to natural occurrence and causing environmental and health concerns. A vast amount of data shows that metal may accumulate in the human body and its deposition has been detected in organs such as brain and liver. Moreover, the disease nephrogenic systemic fibrosis has been linked to increased Gd3+ levels. Investigation of Gd3+ effects at the cellular and molecular levels mostly revolves around calcium-dependent proteins, since Gd3+ competes with calcium due to their similar size; other reports focus on interaction of Gd3+ with nucleic acids and carbohydrates. However, little is known about Gd3+ effects on membranes; yet some results suggest that Gd3+ interacts strongly with biologically-relevant lipids (e.g., brain membrane constituents) and causes serious structural changes including enhanced membrane rigidity and propensity for lipid fusion and aggregation at much lower concentrations than other ions, both toxic and essential. This review surveys the impact of the anthropogenic use of Gd emphasizing health risks and discussing debilitating effects of Gd3+ on cell membrane organization that may lead to deleterious health consequences.

Benefits and Detriments of Gadolinium from Medical Advances to Health and Ecological Risks.

Radiation detectors are widely used in physics, materials science, chemistry, and biology. Halide perovskites are known for their superior properties including tunable bandgaps and chemical compositions, high defect tolerance, solution-processable synthesis of films and crystals, and high carrier diffusion length. Recently, halide perovskites have attracted enormous interest as particle radiation detectors for both charged (α and β) and uncharged (neutrons) particles. Solid-state detectors based on single crystal perovskites can detect α particles and thermal neutrons with energy-resolved spectra. Halide perovskite scintillators are also able to detect β particles and fast neutrons. In this review, we briefly introduce the fundamentals of radiation detection and summarize the recent progress on halide perovskite detectors for particle radiation.

Halide perovskites and perovskite related materials for particle radiation detection.

We report herein the application of a new series of plastic scintillators loaded with lithium tetraborate nanoparticles (Li 2 B 4 O 7 ) designed for the simultaneous detection of fast neutrons, thermal neutrons and gamma-rays. First, MCNP simulations are performed to highlight the potential benefit of Li 2 B 4 O 7 loading. Then, a nanoparticle-loaded scintillator is prepared and evaluated towards the detection of a partially thermalized neutron/gamma 252-californium source. Several scenarios of radiation/matter interactions are evaluated against the observed results. A detection chamber composed of boron-containing chipboard wood has been specifically designed and a subtraction method was set up to afford the best discrimination pattern. For the first time, a triple discrimination is presented with a nanoparticles-loaded plastic scintillator, where both 6 Li(n, α ) and 10 B(n, α ) signatures are observed. A Figure of Merit of 1.40 was calculated between fast neutrons and gamma rays around 480 keVee. The Figure of Merit between fast + thermal neutrons and gamma rays is slightly worse as it is 1.16 at 380 keVee.

Nanoparticles-loaded plastic scintillators for fast/thermal neutrons/gamma discrimination: Simulation and results

Natural gadolinium displays a number of remarkable physical properties: it is a rare earth element, composed of seven stable or quasi-stable isotopes, with an exceptionally high magnetization and a Curie point near room temperature. Its use in the field of nuclear instrumentation historically relates to its efficiency as a neutron poison in power reactors. Gadolinium is indeed the naturally occurring element with the highest interaction probability with neutrons at thermal energy, shared between Gd-157 (15.65%, 254000 b cross section) and Gd-155 (14.8%, 60900 b) isotopes. Considering that neutron capture results in an isotopic change, followed by a radiative rearrangement of nuclear and atomic structures, Gd may be embodied not merely as a neutron poison but as a neutron converter into a prompt photon and an electron source term. Depending on the nature and energy of the reaction products (from a few-keV Auger electrons up to 8 MeV gamma rays) that the detector aims at isolating as an indirect neutron signature, a variety of sensor media and counting methods have been introduced during the last decades. This review first draws a theoretical description of the radiative cascade following Gd ( n , γ ) capture. The cascade may be subdivided into regions of interest, each corresponding to dedicated detection designs and optimizations whose current status is detailed. This inventory has allowed the authors to extract and benchmark key figures of merit for the definition of a detection scheme: neutron attenuation, neutron sensitivity (cps/nv), gamma rejection, neutron detection limit in a mixed field, intrinsic or extrinsic moderation, and transportability. On this basis, the authors have identified promising paths for Gd-based neutron detection in contemporary instrumentation.

Gadolinium for neutron detection in current nuclear instrumentation research: A review

This work investigates a compact Compton Suppression System (CSS) based on a High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) diode as a primary spectrometer. From a wide range of potential materials for the guard detector, including plastic scintillator, Thallium doped Sodium Iodide (NaI(Tl)), and Lanthanum III bromide (LaBr3), a bismuth germanate crystal (BGO) is selected on account of a high photon mass-attenuation coefficient, thus allowing more compactness. The authors then describe the complete design study of an HPGe/BGO CSS based on the post-processing of Monte Carlo particle track history files (MCNP6.1/PTRAC). The calculation program, simulating the filtering of coincident events on both primary and secondary detectors, is validated through a series of experimental measurements using Am-241, Cs-137, and Co-60 sources in various configurations. On the basis of this empirically validated calculation, an optimization study of the BGO-active shield is performed over two factors of merit: Compton Suppression Factor (CSF) and Full-Energy Peak Efficiency. Optimization steps subsequently involve the scaling of BGO internal and external radii, the thickness of the entrance window, and the diameter of a collimation hole. Eventually, performance figures of the CSS are illustrated in a case study involving the characterization of large waste containers, carrying low levels of uranium activity to seek among natural radiological background. Calculation results show a lowering of minimal detectable activities (MDA) by a factor of 2.5 based on the signature of 1001-keV gamma rays from U-238.

Characterizing low-activity waste containers: A case study for Compton Suppression Systems under challenging signal-to-noise ratio

Fuel debris have a distinct neutron signature that can be detected to locate the said debris in a damaged nuclear power plant . Neutron measurement in a damaged PCV environment is however submitted to severe deployments constraints, including a high-dose-rate gamma background and limited available space. The study was therefore oriented towards small fission chambers (FC), with U-235-enriched active substrates. To investigate the expected performance of the FC in various irradiation conditions, a numerical model of the detector head was built. We describe the elaboration and experimental calibration of the numerical model and the Monte Carlo study of the fission rate inside U-235 coatings per generated neutron. The evaluation of a representative calibration coefficient then allowed us to carry out a multi-parameter performance study of a FC underwater, aiming at computing an explicit response function linking, on the one hand, the activity and spatial distribution of neutron emitters in a water container, with, one the other hand, the expected count rates measured by a fission chamber as a function of its radial and axial position inside the water volume. The FC underwater behavior was subsequently corroborated by a measurement campaign on a FC response, set at different positions inside a water drum, as a function of its axial and radial distance to a Cf-252 neutron source attached near the center of the container. We finally present an approach in which fuel debris localization is defined as an Inverse Problem, solvable with a Maximum-Likelihood Expectation Maximization (ML-EM) iterative algorithm. The projector matrix is built by capitalization on the results of the previously consolidated numerical studies. The ML-EM was tested on simulated data sets with a varying number of active voxels. Our first results indicate that, for a thermal neutron flux in the order of 10 n.cm −2.s−1 at the detector, originating voxels are identified with a spatial resolution in the radial plane in the order of 10 to 100 cm2.

Inverse Problem Approach for the underwater localization of Fukushima Daiichi fuel debris with fission chambers

CEA LIST is working of the development of a high-sensitivity thermal neutron counter, based on the insertion of gadolinium in spherical plastic scintillators. As the radiation sensor comprises one or several volumes of scintillating polymers, it is, by nature, sensitive to both neutron and gamma radiations. This property allows the development of a versatile detector, provided that it is possible to algorithmically separate the signature of both types of radiations. The technologically building brick is, moreover, to be implemented in a transportable ( 15  kg) system, handled by a first intervention task force in an exposed area. The aim of this paper is to study, both through Monte Carlo simulation and experimentally, an algorithmic architecture of the measurement chain discriminating neutron and gamma events. The presentation is subdivided in three main sections. First, we detail a comparative study between the outputs of a numerical modeling tool, developed to simulate the total response of the sensor to varying radiation sources and the results of a series of experiments carried out in a controlled environment. Second, we describe the building and numerical pre-validation of a simulation code dedicated to the study of consolidated algorithmic architecture, namely γ – γ quasi-coincidence on two adjacent plastic scintillators. Third, we comment on an experimental study of γ – γ quasi-coincidence, Gd-based neutron detection and a comparison between the results and the estimated of the numerical study. We conclude with the presentation of first estimates of neutron sensitivity), gamma-background vulnerability, and n/ γ discrimination ratio for the scaled and assessed, material and algorithmic architectures.

Advancements in Gd-based neutron detection: γ – γ coincidence approach

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Gadolinium for neutron detection in current nuclear instrumentation research: A review

Characterizing low-activity waste containers: A case study for Compton Suppression Systems under challenging signal-to-noise ratio

Inverse Problem Approach for the underwater localization of Fukushima Daiichi fuel debris with fission chambers

Advancements in Gd-based neutron detection: γ – γ coincidence approach