The response of a fast phosphor screen scintillator (ZnO:Ga) to low energy ions (0-60 keV)

ZnO:Ga is a promising, high time resolution candidate for use as a fast-ion-loss detector in TJ-II. We compare its ionoluminescence with that of the standard fast-ion-loss detector material, SrGa2S4:Eu (also known as TG-Green), when irradiated by H+ ions with a range of energies E <= 60 keV using a dedicated laboratory setup. It is found that ZnO:Ga is a reasonably good candidate for detecting low energy (E < 60 keV) ions as it has excellent time resolution; however, its sensitivity is about 100 times lower than TG-Green, potentially limiting it to applications with high energy ion loss signals. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3496982]