Interpretation of Light-Quenching Factor Measurements
arXiv:0707.0766 · doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2007.09.006
Abstract
We observe that the pattern of the quenching factors for scintillation light from various ions, recently studied in $CaWO_4$ in connection with dark matter detectors, can be understood as a saturation phenomenon in which the light output is simply proportional to track length, independent of the ion and its energy. This observation is in accord with the high dE/dx limit of Birks' law. It suggests a simple model for the intrinsic resolution of light detectors for low energy ions, which we briefly discuss.
Seven pages, seven figures, some with color