A digital three-detector positron lifetime spectrometer was developed.It consists of a DRS4 waveform digitizing board and three La Br3scintillation detectors coupled to XP2020Q photomultiplier tubes.DRS4 waveform digitizing allows data sampling at up to 5 GSPS with high amplitude resolution,with good time scale linearity and stability.In the triple-coincidence,the new system could reach a 195 ps time resolution,which is better than the conventional analog apparatus with the same detectors.This spectrometer can be applied to the other scintillation timing measurements with picoseconds accuracy.
For the proper interpretation of the experimental data produced in slow positron beam technique, the positron implantation properties are studied carefully using the latest Geant4 code. The simulated backscattering coefficients, the implantation profiles, and the median implantation depths for mono-energetic positrons with energy range from 1 keV to 50 keV normally incident on different crystals are reported. Compared with the previous experimental results, our simulation backscattering coefficients are in reasonable agreement, and we think that the accuracy may be related to the structures of the host materials in the Geant4 code. Based on the reasonable simulated backscattering coefficients, the adjustable parameters of the implantation profiles which are dependent on materials and implantation energies are obtained. The most important point is that we calculate the positron backscattering coefficients and median implantation depths in amorphous polymers for the first time and our simulations are in fairly good agreement with the previous experimental results.
We make a gradient correction to a new local density approximation form of positron-electron correlation. The positron lifetimes and affinities are then probed by using these two approximation forms based on three electronic-structure calculation methods, including the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave（FLAPW） plus local orbitals approach,the atomic superposition（ATSUP） approach, and the projector augmented wave（PAW） approach. The differences between calculated lifetimes using the FLAPW and ATSUP methods are clearly interpreted in the view of positron and electron transfers. We further find that a well-implemented PAW method can give near-perfect agreement on both the positron lifetimes and affinities with the FLAPW method, and the competitiveness of the ATSUP method against the FLAPW/PAW method is reduced within the best calculations. By comparing with the experimental data, the new introduced gradient corrected correlation form is proved to be competitive for positron lifetime and affinity calculations.
A new simple digital positron lifetime spectrometer has been developed. It includes a DRS4 waveform digitizing board and two scintillation detectors based on the XP2020Q photomultiplier tubes and LaBr3 scintillators. The DRS4 waveform digitizing can handle small pulses, down to few tens of millivolts, and its time scale linearity and stability are very good. The new system has reached a 206 ps time resolution, which is better than the conventional analog apparatus using the same detectors. These improvements make this spectrometer more simple and convenient in comparison with other spectrometers, and it can be applied to the other scintillation timing measurements with picosecond accuracy.
