Radiation detector based on piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate material

The feasibility of using piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) elements as a radiation detector was examined. We tried to observe the pressure wave excited by irradiating liquid ethanol (C2H5OH) with a 400 MeV/n xenon (Xe) beam using an array of PZT elements, while changing the position of beam irradiation. The elements were designed to obtain two independent electric signals in order to estimate the beam position in one direction on a two-dimensional plane. The time at which the peak of the output signal appeared differed between the two signals obtained from one element under limited experimental conditions. This suggests that the trajectory of the Xe beam may be determined in three-dimensional space with an improved array of the PZT elements.