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Abstract

Several future neutrino experiments call for metal loaded liquid scintillators for neutrino detection. The challenge in the development of such scintillators is how to dissolve large amounts of the metal in an organic liquid scintillator without degrading the optical properties. A promising new approach is the use of metal ß-diketonates. Different to earlier approaches which resulted in non-stable metal loaded scintillators, long term stability of optical and chemical properties is expected. A method to develop a highly In-loaded liquid scintillator for a future real-time experiment that measures the low energy solar neutrino spectrum via the charged current interaction is investigated. This research includes the synthesis and purification of pure In(acetylacetone)3, optical characterization of scintillator components, theoretical modeling, optimization of the scintillator composition and measurements in a prototype detector. The approach used is motivated by the expected stability and purity which are both basic requirements on such a metal loaded scintillator. The same method is used for the investigation of a Gd-loaded scintillator for a reactor neutrino experiment that aims to measure neutrino mixing parameters. Finally, a further application of this approach could be the fabrication of a Nd-loaded liquid scintillator for a future experiment searching for neutrinoless double ß-decay.