Pulse-shape discrimination potential of new scintillator material: La-GPS:Ce

Abstract

(Gd,La)$_2$Si$_2$O$_7$:Ce (La-GPS:Ce) is a new scintillator material with high light output, high energy resolution, and fast decay time. Moreover, the scintillator has a good light output even at high temperature (up to 150$^\circ$C) and is non-hygroscopic in nature; thus, it is especially suitable for underground resource exploration. Particle identification greatly expands the possible applications of scintillator. For resource exploration, the particle identification should be completed in a single pulse only. The pulse-shape discrimination of the scintillator was confirmed. We compared two methods; a double gate method and a digital filter method. Using digital filter method (shape indicator), F-measure to evaluate a separation between $\alpha$ and $\gamma$ particles was obtained to be 0.92 at 0.66 MeVee.