Tellurium-loaded plastic scintillators
The first results of the development of the early unknown tellurium-loaded plastic scintillators based on the polystyrene, polymethylmethacrylate, and their copolymers for the detectors used to search and investigate neutrinoless double beta-decay were presented. Diphenyltellurium di-2-ethylhexanoate and a complex compound of diphenyltellurium oxide with di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid were used as tellurium-loaded additives. Conditions for producing scintillators were described, and their light yield and transparency were characterized.
It was demonstrated that the use of a complex compound of diphenyltellurium oxide with di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid as a tellurium-loaded additive under optimized polymerization conditions allows producing tellurium-loaded plastic scintillators of higher quality. The light yield of such scintillators based on polystyrene with a metal mass fraction of 1% is 59% $\pm$ 2% relative to a standard plastic scintillator that is based on polystyrene and is not tellurium-loaded.
The research was supported by a grant of the Russian Science Foundation for fundamental scientific research and exploratory scientific research conducted by small individual scientific groups (project No. 23-22-00214).
The following DLNP staff members participated in the research: I. A. Suslov, I. B. Nemchenok, A. A. Klimenko, and A. D. Bystryakov.