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Improvements in Scintillation Technology for Detection of Nuclear Radiation

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Contract: HDTRA1-08-C-0080
Agency Tracking Number: T071-004-0242
Amount: $749,989.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: DTRA07-004
Solicitation Number: 2007.1
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2007
Award Year: 2008
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2008-09-29
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2010-09-28
Small Business Information
44 Hunt Street
Watertown, MA 02472
United States
DUNS: 073804411
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Vivek Nagarkar
 Group Leader
 (617) 668-6937
 VNagarkar@rmdinc.com
Business Contact
 Gerald Entine
Title: President
Phone: (617) 668-6800
Email: GEntine@rmdinc.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

High-resolution scintillation crystals and crystal arrays are important components of current and future handheld and arrayed detectors (used for DOD/DTRA applications), and scintillation spectrometers (routinely used in high energy physics research, medical imaging, diffraction, homeland security, nuclear waste clean-up, nuclear treaty verification and safeguards, and geological exploration). Unfortunately, the properties of current scintillators often limit the performance of such systems, therefore, in order to fulfill the needs of their many exciting and demanding applications, advances in scintillator technology are necessary. Specifically, scintillators that simultaneously produce high light output, high stopping efficiency, fast response, high energy and timing resolution, good proportionality, and low cost are needed. We, therefore, propose to develop a novel semiconductor scintillator that promises to produce up to a three-fold increase in light yield, compared to some of today’s brightest scintillators. Furthermore, this novel semiconductor scintillator also has a high gamma-ray absorption, fast decay without afterglow, emission in the wavelength range most suitable for readout sensors, and orders of magnitude higher radiation resistance, than current scintillators. For large volume, cost effective manufacturing, powder consolidation techniques will be used to fabricate this transparent optical ceramic scintillator. Our Phase II goals include fabricating thick, transparent ceramic, and demonstrating its performance superiority relative to current state-of-the-art scintillators.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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