Title:

Investigating Low-Temperature Scintillation Properties of Bismuth Germanate

ASCENT is a proposed balloon-based gamma-ray observatory, purpose-built to look at recent supernova remnants such as Cas A and SN 1987A, to investigate questions concerning the synthesis of Ti-44 and the source of supernova "kicks". For spectroscopy, ASCENT will use Transition-Edge Sensors cooled down to superconducting temperatures. In order to do anti-coincidence shielding for these detectors, the need arises for a scintillator material that can perform at temperatures below 70 milliKelvin. Bismuth Germanate (BGO) has already proven itself at temperatures down to 3K, and so is therefore a potential option for ASCENT, but its performance as a scintillator below temperatures of 3K is yet to be seen. To determine the feasibility of BGO as a scintillator material for ASCENT, we have developed an experimental procedure to investigate its light yield and spectroscopic performance at temperatures below 3K.

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