Response of Scintillators to UH Nuclei

In order to evaluate the performance of plastic scintillators for the detection of Ultra-Heavy cosmic ray nuclei, as envisaged in paper OG 10.1.14P, we have conducted experiments at the LBL Bevalac in which we exposed NE-114 and acrylic scintillators to beams of 47Ag ions and its interaction fragments. As a result we have calibrated these scintillators over the charge range 31 ≤ Z ≤ 47. Our results show that a combination of Cherenkov and scintillator detectors can resolve individual charges over this charge range. The resolution obtained in scintillator was 0.24 and 0.28 cu for NE-114 and acrylic scintillator respectively. In addition the light emission is shown to be linear to a good approximation with dE/dx over this charge range.