Development of UoYTube Detector for Ionising Radiation

This thesis describes the testing of several prototype detectors, designed to be used in a radiation detector called the UoYTube. This detector can be used to detect charged particles emitted in fusion evaporation reactions.
In this work, several UoYTube prototypes were designed, fabricated and characterised/tested. These included prototypes with different scintillator crystals (Caesium Iodide and plastic), prototypes with different geometries (truncated pyramid and cuboid), and prototypes that included different types of light guides (Acrylic and 3D Printed).
These prototypes were characterised in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio, the optimum bias value, the energy resolution, the Acrylic versus 3D-Printed light guides, the number of counts and the optimum amplifier shaping time. Two different methods used to fabricate light guides (one 3D Printed and the other with the HURCO VMX60m Machining Centre), are also described. The light guides were then characterised and compared to each other in terms of their light output, energy resolution, and the optimum shaping time.
Using these results, it was inferred that the plastic scintillator (with a truncated pyramid geometry) demonstrated the highest signal-to-noise ratio. The plastic scintillator (with a truncated pyramid geometry) and Caesium Iodide scintillator (with a truncated pyramid geometry), demonstrated a range of the optimum bias values, over which there was little variation in the measured signal-to-noise ratio. The Caesium Iodide scintillator (with a truncated pyramid geometry), demonstrated good energy resolution. The transmittance of light from the spectrometer through the 3D Printed light guide was significantly poorer than that of the acrylic light guide. The difference in recorded energy resolution between the light guides was not very significant. The recorded number of counts was greater for the Acrylic light guide, when compared to the 3D Printed light guide. It was also concluded that both the acrylic and 3D Printed light guided prototypes should be operated with the highest values of shaping time, corresponding to the best resolution. These results were then used to decide upon the optimum design for the next generation UoYTube detector.