Development of BaF2 crystals for future HEP experiments at the intensity frontiers

Abstract

Barium fluoride (BaF2) is a fast inorganic crystal scintillator. Because of its fast scintillation with sub nanosecond decay time it is considered as a candidate crystal for a very fast crystal calorimetry for future HEP experiments at the intensity frontier. Two crucial issues of BaF2 application are its radiation hardness and its slow scintillation component with 600 ns decay time, which causes pile-up. BaF2 crystals produced by different vendors were irradiated by γ-rays up to 120 Mrad, and show good radiation hardness. A 20 cm long rare earth doped BaF2 crystal grown by BGRI shows promising performance in slow component suppression.