Separation of scintillation and Cherenkov lights in linear alkyl benzene

To separate scintillation and Cherenkov lights in water-based liquid scintillator detectors is a desired feature for future neutrino and proton decay experiments. Linear alkyl benzene (LAB) is one important ingredient of a water-based liquid scintillator currently under development. In this paper we report on the separation of scintillation and Cherenkov lights observed in an LAB sample. The rise and decay times of the scintillation light are measured to be (7.7±3.0)ns and (36.6±2.4)ns, respectively, while the full width [−3σ, 3σ] of the Cherenkov light is 12 ns and is dominated by the time resolution of the photomultiplier tubes. The scintillation light yield was measured to be (1.01±0.12)×103photons/MeV.