Doping of a Borexino-like Liquid Scintillator with Tellurium-Diols
One promising approach for future neutrinoless double beta decay ($0νββ$) searches is the incorporation of candidate isotopes into liquid scintillator detectors. In this work, a sample of the high-performance 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene-based liquid scintillator used in the Borexino experiment was loaded with different concentrations of Te-diol compounds. To realize the loading, a modified water-free synthesis procedure in a non-acidic organic environment at room temperature was employed. The loaded scintillator mixtures were characterized with respect to their emission spectra, optical absorbance, light yield, and scintillation time profiles under $α$ excitation. Within the experimental uncertainties, only comparatively small changes in the spectral emission shape and optical transmission were observed for Te-loadings up to 2\%. At the same time, a systematic reduction of the scintillation light yield with increasing Te concentration was measured. At 1\% Te-loading, an estimated light yield of approximately 8400\,photons/MeV$_{\mathrm{ee}}$ was obtained. Furthermore, the scintillation time profile measurements indicate systematically shorter effective decay time constants for increasing Te-loading, consistent with enhanced non-radiative de-excitation processes introduced by the Te-diol complexes. Overall, the results demonstrate that the investigated loading technique can be successfully applied to a pseudocumene-based liquid scintillator while preserving the principal scintillation characteristics of the system.