Picosecond transient absorption rise time for ultrafast tagging of the interaction of ionizing radiation with scintillating crystals in high energy physics experiments

Here we report the first results of a search of a signature for picosecond time stamps of the interaction between ionizing particles and transparent crystalline media. The induced absorption with sub-picosecond rise time observed in a cerium fluoride scintillation single crystal under UV excitation is directly associated with the ionization of Ce(3+) atoms in CeF(3) crystals, and the very fast occurrence thereof can be used to generate picosecond-precise time stamps corresponding to the interaction of ionizing particles with the crystal in high energy physics experiments.