scintillator
- noun
- /ˈsɪntɪˌleɪtər/
- Specialized
:
centelleador
- The scintillator glowed brightly when it absorbed the gamma rays from the radioactive source.
- plastic scintillator
- liquid scintillator
- inorganic scintillator
Examples
-
The guts of Explorer XI's telescope held a device called a scintillator, which responds to an incoming gamma ray by pumping out electrically charged particles.
Academic text (2006) -
The central core of the Borexino scintillator is now the lowest background detector available for these observations.
Blog text (28) -
Instead, all of the observatory instruments have scintillators.
Academic text (1990) -
To reduce background radiation, the front of each module is covered with a plastic scintillator shield that rejects charged particles.
Academic text (1990) -
The upper detector array is made of seven aluminum modules filled with liquid scintillator.
Academic text (1990) -
The pair of annihilation photons was detected simultaneously in the two scintillators.
Academic text (1995) -
Good scintillators produce large light pulses, whose intensities are proportional to the incoming photon energy.
Academic text (2004) -
Electrons, positrons, and photons were identified by the showers they induced in sandwiched layers of lead and scintillator.
Academic text (1995) -
Just as fluorescent paint converts ultraviolet radiation to visible light, scintillators change gamma rays to visible light.
Academic text (1990) -
Each of the array's 111 surface detectors is a 2.2 m² scintillator that records the passage of charged particles.
Academic text (1998)
Synonyms
189
3.5
A device that senses things like metal, movement, or radioactivity
1
5.8
A machine that finds and shows very small particles inside atoms in physics experiments
1
9.9
A device that detects and measures radiation
How Sensitive
Surface Forms
Morphology
scintillator = scintillate (semi-transparent) = scintill + ator
The base 'scintillate' is clear, but the specific technical application as a radiation detector may not be immediately obvious.
Etymology
Scintillator comes from the Latin root scintill- meaning 'spark' or 'sparkle', like the English word 'spark'. So a scintillator is a material or device that gives a small flash of light when radiation hits it, like a tiny spark detectors can see.