Quenching Corrections for Proton-Irradiated Inorganic Scintillators Using Geant4 Simulations of Linear Energy Transfer

Proton quenching effects in scintillators reduce light output similar to charge collection effects for high density particle tracks in silicon devices. Birks’ equation can be used for macroscopic calculations of quenched light output for an energetic particle species incident upon a given scintillator material when the stopping powerdE/dxand empirically-determined Birks’ parameterkBare both known for the combination of particle and scintillator. Quenching is known to increase withdE/dx, so lowenergy particles exhibit a non-linear quenching effect in scintillators compared to the same particle at high energies. Particle track density can vary greatly as energetic particles traverse the scintillator material, so the calculation ofdE/dxcan impact quenched light calculations. We compare experimental and Monte Carlo quenching results in proton-irradiated YSO and GAGG scintillators using three methods to calculatedE/dxfor use with Birks’ equation: the proton’s averagedE/dxin the scintillator, the proton’sdE/dxat the point at which it enters the surface of the scintillator, and the proton’sdE/dxat each Monte Carlo-simulated “step” at which it interacts with the scintillator.