Radoptic effect in InP and GaN for ultrafast scintillator applications

Ultrafast scintillators are the subject of current research in an effort to better resolve ultrafast phenomena in high-energy density physics (HEDP) experiments. Despite extensive research on new scintillator materials, the essential mechanism of energy absorption, excitation, and photo-emission has remained unchanged for over 50 years. Recently, a new class of semiconductor detector has been developed utilizing the radoptic effect, or the change of refractive index when subjected to radiation, in an attempt to record events faster than conventional scintillators. 1 This study was designed for the observation of the radoptic effect by optical interferometry in different semiconductors to experimentally determine the fastest and most sensitive materials for the optimization of current radsensors.