Predicting the long-term tolerance of functional materials for use in extreme radiation conditions

This experimental-theoretical project focuses on radiation-induced degradation in several functional materials and scintillators currently in use/planned for particle physics, space application and medical imaging. The main goal is to understand and predict the long-term radiation resistance of scintillators via a thorough analysis of the kinetics of defect creation/thermal annealing. The project is aimed to the systematic study of radiation-induced effects in optical materials with focus on transformation/annealing of radiation defects induced by high doses of radiation (gamma, neutrons, protons, swift heavy ions). Advanced experimental techniques, incl. in-house (optical, EPR, Raman, elipsometry) and European large scale facilities (synchrotron, neutron) will be applied alongside ab- initio and kinetic diffusion-controlled modeling to achieve the main objectives: - characterize particle-induced defects and explore their structure by ab initio methods - develop theoretical models as experimentally validated predictive tools for evaluation of dose-dependent radiation damage characteristics establish all positive/negative roles of impurities on interstitial-defect stabilization with endgame to recommend targeted improvement of radiation hardness of materials. As a main result of this investigation, general cost-effective concept of radiation damage behavior of materials as a function of incident particle type and fluence will be established.