Response of a Li-glass/multi-anode photomultiplier detector to α-particles from 241Am

The response of a position-sensitive Li-glass scintillator detector to α-particles from a collimated 241Am source scanned across the face of the detector has been measured. Scintillation light was read out by an 8 × 8 pixel multi-anode photomultiplier and the signal amplitude for each pixel has been recorded for every position on a scan. The pixel signal is strongly dependent on position and in general several pixels will register a signal (a hit) above a given threshold. The effect of this threshold on hit multiplicity is studied, with a view to optimize the single-hit efficiency of the detector.