Student Research Projects

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Department

Physics

Abstract

My research is to design and directly 3D print scintillator detectors. One of my main tasks was to figure out how to make test pieces as transparent as possible by sanding, cerium oxide polishing, and coating in resin. I’ve also designed and 3D printed a completely opaque cylindrical case for the photomultiplier tube (PMT). The PMT is capable of detecting light coming from a scintillator attached to its lens on a single photon level. That makes it extremely sensitive to light, so it must operate in a completely lightproof environment. I also determined ideal conditions under which resins with different amounts of scintillating ingredients can be mixed and printed. The key is to find a good temperature at which scintillating materials stay fully dissolved and don’t recrystallize so that a scintillator can be printed, but that is not too high. This allows me to 3D print liquid resin, but also ensures the resin doesn’t decompose from overheating. The next step of my research is mixing different recipes and 3D printing them to optimize for maximum detection efficiency.

Date of Publication or Presentation

Fall 9-13-2018

Project Type

Undergraduate Research Project

College or School

CEPS

First Advisor

Elena Long

Second Advisor

Michael Briggs

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