PULSE-SHAPE DISCRIMINATION WITH CDWO4 CRYSTAL SCINTILLATORS

The properties of light emission from a CdWO4 crystal scintillator wer e investigated with different kinds of sources (alpha's, protons, cosm ic muons and gamma's). At least three components of scintillation sign al were recognized with decay time of approximate to 1, 6 and 14 mu s. By using the dependence of the relative amplitudes of these component s on the nature of incoming radiation, the pulse-shape discrimination method based on the optimal digital filter was developed to process th e scintillation pulses from the CdWO4 crystal. The clear discriminatio n between gamma-rays and alpha-particles was achieved, that permits th e use of this technique in double-P-decay research and in other low-ba ckground measurements. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.