An experimental setup to study the activation of cosmogenic nuclides

The effects of cosmic ray interaction on materials over long periods of time are of significant concern when designing low-background physics experiments. To probe the beta decay of certain materials caused by muon activation, a new experiment is constructed at Tennessee Technological University. In this setup, muons are detected using eight scintillator detectors, beta decay electrons using scintillator paddles, gamma rays using germanium detectors and neutrons using pulse shape discrimination plastic.

In this study, photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are reverse-engineered for possible implementation into the setup depending on their resulting signal resolution. The existing PMTs within the setup are gain-matched to equalize the waveforms from either side of scintillation bars. This gain-matching will be used for timing calibrations of these scintillation detectors to get a better position resolution for each muon track. A digital data aqusition system is setup for the task. The setup and work done towards achieving the end goal will be discussed.