Low energy proton and electron response of an n-octane liquid scintillator

The proton and electron responses of an n-octane based liquid scintillator were measured. Knock-on protons by neutrons from the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator (ORELA) were used to determine the proton response. Neutron energies from 82 to 1195 keV were selected by time-of-flight with a resolution of better than 1%. The electron response was measured using γ-rays and fluorescence X-rays with energies from 13.4 to 1275 keV. Data interpretation required Monte Carlo simulation. The proton response deviates from linearity below 470 keV while the electron data are consistent with linearity down to 40 keV. The proton to electron response ratio measured in this work is 0.20 +- 0.02 at 1 MeV and 0.13 +- 0.01 at 100 keV. (orig.)