UC Berkeley

The CHErenkov/Scintillation Separation experiment (CHESS) has been used to demonstrate the separation of Cherenkov and scintillation light in both linear alkylbenzene (LAB) and LAB with 2 g/L of PPO as a fluor (LAB/PPO). This is the first successful demonstration of Cherenkov light detection from the more challenging LAB/PPO cocktail and improves on previous results for LAB. A time resolution of 338±12$$338\pm 12$$ ps FWHM results in an efficiency for identifying Cherenkov photons in LAB/PPO of 70±3%$$70 \pm 3 \%$$ and 63±8%$$63\pm 8\%$$ for time- and charge-based separation, respectively, with scintillation contamination of 36±5%$$36\pm 5\%$$ and 38±4$$38\pm 4$$%. LAB/PPO data is consistent with a rise time of τr=0.72±0.33$$\tau _r=0.72\pm 0.33$$ ns.