Speaker
Level for award<br> (Hons, MSc, <br> PhD, N/A)?
MSc
Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> award (Yes / No)?
Yes
Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution
Daniel Joubert daniel.joubert2@wits.ac.za University of Witwatersrand
Please indicate whether<br>this abstract may be<br>published online<br>(Yes / No)
Yes
Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?
Yes
Abstract content <br> (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>
Plastic scintillators placed in particle detectors like the ATLAS detector in the Large Hadron Collider undergo structural damage when they interact with energetic particles they detect. This interaction causes damage to the optically active molecules responsible for the scintillation mechanism, affecting the efficacy of the plastic scintillator. In this study we attempt to understand radiation damage in plastic scintillators using a computational density functional theory (DFT) approach to interpret the results of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) techniques. This should give insight into the structural damage within the plastic scintillator.
Optical absorption and emission properties of the optically active molecules at the DTF, GW and BSE levels will be discussed and the electron hole interaction strength of excited states will be estimated. Calculated hyperfine parameters will be used in an attempt to interpret the width of the measured EPR signal.