Abstract
Abstract
Liquid scintillators are typically composed from organic
compounds dissolved in organic solvents. However, usage of such
material is often restricted due to fire safety and environmental
reasons. Because of this, R&D of water-based liquid scintillators
is of extreme relevance; yet, no such scintillators have been made
commercially available as yet. Here, we investigate an alternative,
water-based quantum dots liquid scintillator. Pre-determined and
controllable optical properties of the quantum dots, as well as the
existence of large libraries of established protocols for their
dispersion in aqueous solutions, make them an attractive option for
nuclear and particle physics applications. We characterize the
optical properties of water-based quantum dots liquid scintillator
and find that most of its optical properties are preserved upon
quantum dots' phase transfer into water, through the addition of an
oleic acid hydrophilic layer. Using the developed scintillator, the
time and charge responses from atmospheric muons are measured,
highlighting the practical viability of water-based quantum dots
liquid scintillators for nuclear and particle physics, special
interest on neutrino physics.