Characterization of Scintillation Quenching in GAGG:Ce Crystals

Charged particles within the earth’s magnetosphere can have significant effects on communications, avionics, and power grids. The charged particle flux in orbit can be measured with scintillation detectors; however, quenching effects significantly reduce light output, so precise measurements of detector response are required to accurately reconstruct incident spectra for space weather models. Cerium-doped Gadolinium Aluminum Gallium Garnet (GAGG:Ce) is a recently-developed scintillator that is well-suited for high rate measurements in the space environment. In this talk, we will present our plan to measure the quenched charged particle response of GAGG:Ce crystals from different manufacturers. Our detectors consist of 10 mm diameter GAGG:Ce crystals coupled to a PIN photodiode, which will be tested at accelerator facilities at Texas A&M University and Los Alamos National Laboratory. We will utilize elastic scattering and nucleon transfer reactions to achieve a broad range of proton energies. The charged particle response data will be compared to predictions from different models of scintillation quenching.