High-energy proton induced damage study of scintillation light output from PbWO4 calorimeter crystals

Eight PbWO4 crystals produced for the electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at LHC have been irradiated in a 20 GeV/c proton beam up to fluences of 5.4 × 10 p/cm. The damage recovery in these crystals, stored in the dark at room temperature, has been followed for over a year. Comparative irradiations with Co photons have been performed on seven other crystals using a dose rate of 1 kGy/h. The issue whether hadrons cause a specific damage to the scintillation mechanism has been studied through light output measurements on the irradiated crystals using cosmic rays. The correlation between light output changes and light transmission changes is measured to be the same for proton-irradiated crystals and for γ-irradiated crystals. Thus, within the precision of the measurements and for the explored range of proton fluences, no additional, hadron-specific damage to the scintillation mechanism is observed. Submitted to Elsevier Science