Charged particle detection using storage phosphor crystals

We propose a precise Position detector based on the photostimulated luminescence (PSL), the principle never used before to detect individual charged tracks. In this detector the particles' tracks produce long-living defects (color centers) in an active medium. Exposure to visible light sometime later reveals the presence and spatial location of these defects and eliminates them thus making open-quotes resetclose quotes to the medium. We demonstrate the vitality of the principle by detecting α-particles with mean signal of 200 photoelectrons. We estimate relativistic particles to yield 50 photoelectrons per millimeter of track. This technique potentially provides a cost effective way to achieve space resolution of tens of microns and excellent pattern recognition capability over a large area in accelerator neutrino experiments