Our primary choice of the detector technology is the wide-used liquid scintillator(LS) and large-size vacuum photomultipliers. This technology is extremely well understood and relatively straight to implement. This technology however has limitations as well and therefore we also consider other technologies and here we list potential technologies we consider for the nuEYE experiment.
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"Slow" LS
Our primary choice of the detector is the liquid scintillator detector. In order to improve the separation capability of scintillation and Cherenkov lights, there have been efforts to "slow down" the scintillation light to enhance the separation capability since the Cherenkov light is known to be much faster. The pioneering work can be found in Nucl. Inst. and Meth., A 972 (2020) 164106. We focus on this direction with various fluors including pyrene, DPH, and DPA. Some of materials in Pub/Presentations tab contains recent progress on our R&D.
WbLS
Another approach to separate Cherenkov from scintillation lights is to adapt WbLS technology. This technology is under active development through ongoing R&D programs. By incorporating a liquid scintillator into water, WbLS allows for the detection of particles with energy below the Cherenkov threshold while maintaining water's excellent directional capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and scalability. We discuss with both Korean and international WbLS community and discuss potential usage in NuEYE project.
LiquidO
A new detection technique for neutrinos with an opaque scintillator is proposed recently (Nature, Commun. Phys. 4, 273 2021). This technique, known as LiquidO in the neutrino community, can provide efficient identification of particles in event-by-event basis through a high-resolution imaging based on optical fibers. A 10 litter scale prototype was fabricated and characterized in detail ([arXiv:2503.02541]). In order to explore this new technology and study a possibility to use it to a 2 killo tonne scale neutrino detector, we started R&D on the LiquidO technology. The R&D includes fabrication of a small scale prototype and potential for a larger scale detector.
Segmented LS + 115In loading
The original idea of 115In loading by Raghavan (LENS) has been discussed several times. Some of them are arXiv:0705.2769, arXiv:1501.06935, and arXiv:2507.07397. Main idea is using total internal refraction to reconstruct the triple coincidence of one electron and two delayed gammas. The segmentation is needed to separate two photons to realize the the triple coincidence. The main issue is the huge beta decays of 115In and in principle finder segmentation will suppress the beta decay background significantly. We are looking into this for the solar pp neutrino detection.
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