2025

Time and location (unless otherwise noted):

Upcoming Colloquium

Tues. 11 February, 2025, Charles Melcher, U. Tennessee Knoxville 

Title: New Ultra-Fast Scintillators


Abstract: 

Sub-nanosecond scintillation emission has been known for 40+ years in compounds such as BaF2 and CsF and yet there are relatively few applications. More recently our group at the University of Tennessee has demonstrated that the compositional landscape is broader than we previously realized. For example, Cs2ZnCl4 and Cs3ZnCl5 are relatively new scintillator materials that appear to be promising for use in fast-timing radiation detection applications owing to their 1 to 2 nanosecond decay times. Moreover, they offer several advantages over BaF2 which has been the gold standard ultrafast inorganic scintillator since the 1980’s. We have found that advances in crystal growth can lead to significant improvements in scintillation performance that exceed previously accepted theoretical limits. In this presentation we will explore the current state of the art of ultra-fast scintillators and the prospects for further advances. In addition, we will describe early results with some novel materials that display cross valence luminescence and may hold important potential for the future.


Schedule

Tues. 11 February, 2025, Charles Melcher, U. Tennessee Knoxville 

Chuck Melcher earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Rice University and a  Ph.D. in physics from Washington University in St. Louis. He was a post-doc at Caltech for three years working in heavy ion sputtering before joining Schlumberger-Doll Research. While at Schlumberger he developed scintillation and semi-conductor detectors for geophysical exploration. As Senior Scientist at Schlumberger, he invented the LSO:Ce scintillator. In 1996 he joined CTI Molecular Imaging to further develop LSO:Ce for positron emission tomography (PET). In 2005 he joined the research faculty at the University of Tennessee and soon thereafter founded the Scintillation Materials Research Center where he currently serves as Director. Melcher has authored or co-authored over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles with more than 10,000 citations.  He has also written three book chapters and several invited review articles. He holds 31 U.S. patents and 35 foreign patents on various scintillation materials.  He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and a Life Fellow of the IEEE.  He received the  IEEE Merit Award in 2004 and the Marie Sklodowska Curie Award in 2025.
Zoom: https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/99958746422?pwd=Ek8PgCXQ3pXkfZ40RwUxbzuS3kUlsb.1
(ID: 999 5874 6422, Passcode: 494515)


Title: New Ultra-Fast Scintillators


Abstract: 

Sub-nanosecond scintillation emission has been known for 40+ years in compounds such as BaF2 and CsF and yet there are relatively few applications. More recently our group at the University of Tennessee has demonstrated that the compositional landscape is broader than we previously realized. For example, Cs2ZnCl4 and Cs3ZnCl5 are relatively new scintillator materials that appear to be promising for use in fast-timing radiation detection applications owing to their 1 to 2 nanosecond decay times. Moreover, they offer several advantages over BaF2 which has been the gold standard ultrafast inorganic scintillator since the 1980’s. We have found that advances in crystal growth can lead to significant improvements in scintillation performance that exceed previously accepted theoretical limits. In this presentation we will explore the current state of the art of ultra-fast scintillators and the prospects for further advances. In addition, we will describe early results with some novel materials that display cross valence luminescence and may hold important potential for the future.



Tues. 11 March, 2025, Paulo Bedaque, U. Maryland

Title: TBD


Abstract: TBD


Tues. 8 April, 2025, Callum Wilkinson, LBNL

Title: (Nuclear) Barriers to precision neutrino oscillation measurements


Abstract: Current and future few-GeV accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments promise to answer important questions: do neutrinos violate charge-parity symmetry; what is the neutrino mass ordering; and, is the three-flavor mixing model sufficient to describe the neutrino sector? Precise measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters would also turn neutrino oscillations into a potent tool for further discovery.


However, these experiments require a precise understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions to fulfill their potential. Current uncertainties on the relevant processes are large, and are dominated by subtle details of the pertinent nuclear physics, which are difficult to control.


Tues. 6 May, 2025, Annika Lennarz, TRIUMF

Title: TBD


Abstract: TBD


Tues. 3 June, 2025, TBD

Title: TBD


Abstract: TBD


Tues. 9 September, 2025, TBD

Title: TBD


Abstract: TBD


Tues. 7 October, 2025, TBD

Title: TBD


Abstract: TBD


Tues. 4 November, 2025, TBD

Title: TBD


Abstract: TBD


Tues. 2 December, 2025, Laura Fabbietti, TUM

Title: TBD


Abstract: TBD


Previous Colloquium