At DLNP, the adjustment and commissioning work is well under way at LINAC-200, the first stage of the electron linear accelerator LINAC-800. The accelerator is intended for carrying out methodological investigations of detectors developed at JINR, solving applied problems with the use of electron beams, and implementing educational programmes of the JINR University Centre. The accelerator will produce electron beams with energies of 10 MeV to 200 MeV in a wide intensity range.

One of the first noticeable results obtained during the adjustment of the accelerator systems was calibration of the scintillation particle detectors developed at DLNP for in-beam use at this accelerator. Three types of scintillation detectors based on the LaBr:Ce crystals, BGO crystals, and plastic scintillator were investigated, and energy spectra of the detectors were measured after their exposure to electron beams with energies of 11 to 25 MeV and to Co-60 source radiation. The experimental data were analysed and published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods.

At the photo: El-Sayed Abdel-Shakur and S. Yu. Porokhovoi.

Another interesting methodological result related to the accurate beam energy measurement was also obtained during the above work. A standard method of determining beam electron energies is to use the data from the deflecting magnet with the known magnetic field strength map. When for some reason these data cannot be used, an additional independent and reliable method for electron energy measurement is worth noting. It was proposed by the scientists of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions and successfully tested at LINAC-200. The method is based on comparing yields of several photonuclear reactions induced in natural indium by the electron bremsstrahlung in a thick tungsten target.

For their work “Beam energy measurement on LINAC-200 accelerator and energy calibration of scintillation detectors by electrons in range from 1 MeV to 25 MeV” published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, El-Sayed Abdel-Shakur, M. A. Demichev, M. I. Gostkin, V. V. Kobets, V. G. Kruchonok, A. A. Nozdrin, and S. Yu. Porokhovoi were awarded the Encouragement Prize of the 2020 DLNP Research Award Competition.

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