Quenching comparison of BGO and BSO for heavy ions

Scintillator non-linearity is an important parameter in calibration of scintillators, especially when measuring ions. Here we investigate the response of two scintillators, namely BGO (Bi4Ge3O12) and BSO (Bi4Si3O12), to different ions from helium to iron. We compare the scintillator output with the energy loss according to GEANT4 simulations and determine the quenching parameters for each ion species. BGO and BSO share the same crystalline structure but differ in one single component, therefore we also analyse differences in light output and non-linearity between the two scintillators caused by this similarity and present a model predicting these effects for heavy ions.